Usability Review of OpenMoko GTK+ Applications

[Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman)]

On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:51:58 +0100 Marcus Bauer <marcus.bauer at gmail.com>
babbled:


> Isn't the power button enough for quitting running apps? I wouldn't add
> anything to the app list - to fiddely. KISS...

i disagree. why? power button is 1. inset, 2. hardish to hit, 3 non-obvious.
when you have a touchscreen ui - you want controls ON the screen - in front of
you, not hidden down the side of the phone. power as a shortcut - yes. power
as the only close control - no.

> > Contacts Application
> > --------------------
> > 
> > * Remove tabs from bottom and buttons from top of index page
> 
> The toolbar button on the top give quick access to the most wanted
> functions: "send sms", "call", "add new contact" - I use them a lot and
> think they are very useful.
> 
> > * Switch to a contact details when list item is clicked
> 
> When you use your fingers to select an entry you do not always select
> the right one on the first go, thus the split of actions "selecting" and
> "showing details" makes a lot of sense to me. I would leave it like it
> is.
> 
> > * Add groups button to toolbar in details page
> 
> The groups tab is the only one I would move elsewhere into a better
> context (i.e. "Add new contact" and "Edit contact")
> 
> > * Remove communication history page(?)
> 
> So far everyone told me that this is a cool feature missing on all other
> phones. I love it ;-)
> 
> What I mostly miss:
> - a category "mobile" for the type of phone number
> - more contact details
> - a remarks field
> 
> 
> > 
> > Status bar
> > ----------
> > 
> > The icons in the bar at the top of the screen should not be interactive,
> > as they are too small to use with a finger. This means all the top icons
> > should not respond to clicks and it should be used for displaying status
> > only.
> 
> Not everything needs to be finger usable - actually I wouldn't give up
> on the icon responses, I use them a lot and would even extend them. When
> I have a stylus then I can gain quick access, when I don't then I go
> through the Today Application.
> 
> Especially as we have such a high resolution screen which is just fun to
> use with a stylus too, not just with the fingers.
> 
> > I'd like to suggest adding a bar at the bottom of the screen that is
> > divided equally into three or less buttons. One of these buttons would
> > be used for taking the user back to the home screen.
> 
> The screen is already so small, adding another bar takes away valuable
> space. The user can go back to the home screen with the second button
> already - that is a very good solution and very quick too.
> 
> 
> > Application menus could be made accessible by either the left of the top
> > status bar (with appropriate indicator next to the application name), or
> > from an extra button in the bottom bar.
> 
> IMHO menues should be up to the applications - for the window manager
> the mantra should be: KISS, keep it simple, stupid. 
> 
> Plus: many apps don't need an application menu bar - think of the dialer
> and the calculator. Menu bars are an old relict from the 80ies - if
> there is a good thing about Web2.0 then it is the death of menu bars :)
> 
> 
> > Keyboard
> > --------
> > 
> > They keyboard should only pop-up when a user explicitly requests it.
> > Usually this is most conveniently done by popping up the keyboard when a
> > user taps inside an entry field. Eventually it would also be nice to be
> > able to switch between different types of keyboard, but the multi-tap
> > should be enough for now.
> 
> Very good point. The keyboard should be user selectable. Additionally it
> should not pop up at all when an external keyboard is used. I would even
> prefer it not automatically to pop up when in an input field, even when
> no external keyboard is attached.
> 
> > If it is not possible to bring up the keyboard on entry tap, then it
> > should be enabled and disabled by a button in the bottom bar.
> 
> A bottom bar is the wrong solution for the problem (of only two hardware
> buttons). Again this could be done with the second hardware button,
> adding a button to the aux menu. The bottom button bar will most of the
> time eat valuable screen estate.
> 
> 
> > Theme
> > -----
> > 
> > The biggest problem with the current theme is performance. The main
> > issue here is the use of gradients which requires either stretching
> > images or dithering (for 16bit display). Both these are a significant
> > performance hit, so I would like to suggest redesigning the theme to be
> > faster and more efficient.
> 
> Although I like the theme, another and faster theme would be cool to
> have! Switching the current theme off makes the Neo feel blazingly fast.
> If a new theme has less gradients, so be it.
> 
> 
> Dates
> -----
> Needs lots of love everywhere and especially lots of speed improvements.
> The rendering of the tables is way too slow.
> 
> 
> Anyway, cool work!
> 
> Marcus
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman) <raster at openmoko.org>