[SailfishDevel] No consistency across screens

[Chris Walker]

On Mon, 30 Dec 2013 14:01:34 +0000
David Greaves <david.greaves at jolla.com> wrote:

> Thanks for taking the time to comment :)
> 
> Some parts I can offer an opinion on ...
> 
> On 30/12/13 13:02, Chris Walker wrote:
> > 1. Front screen - no labels on second screen (phone, messages,
> > browser and camera) except when dragged up slightly. [I can see no
> > logic for that whatsoever. It seems to reply on familiarity with
> > the phone but as I've only had it for a few days, that familiarity
> > is not there].
> 
> What percentage of the time you own a typical device is spent in
> unfamiliarity vs familiarity.
> 
> In the long run which is more important for you as a user from an
> optimisation and experience point of view.
> In the short run which is more important for a salesman or a reviewer
> point of view.
> 
> Would you rather Jolla designed for a sales/review experience or a
> long term user experience?

They're not mutually exclusive! If the design is usable in the first
instance, it doesn't stop being usable with familiarity over time.

In my working life I was a hardware engineer and never had much time
for sales people so I've probably answered that one ;-)

> FWIW an iconic car maker in the UK (TVR) produced wonderfully
> engineered car interiors; one thing that annoyed reviewers and
> delighted owners was the lack of spurious writing all over the
> dashboard.

TVR might have designed good interiors but it was a pity they never
managed to produce the rest of the car in the same way. The interiors
were stylish but they built on a poor foundation. To put this into
context against a phone, it's all very well having a good UI but if the
foundation is poor, you're always on a loser, as was TVR ;-)

> I do agree that there is always a balance - we think it's pretty good
> but we do value feedback as that's what helps us get it just right.

A long time ago, there was a UK computer manufacturer called Acorn.
IMHO they were one of the few companies, Apple being another, that
produced a consistent user interface. They had one way of doing things
with the apps being small and passing on tasks to other small apps.
What they didn't have was two ways of entering email account details for
instance - I still haven't sorted out an email account. 

> > 4. No way to interact with things in the browser e.g. save a
> > picture.
> 
> A long press does that (although some pages seem to prevent it).
> We're aware that the discoverability of a long-press is poor.
> 
> > 5. Power level and 2G/3G signal off page - only visible when moving
> > between 2 panes.
> 
> By design - you rarely need this information but it's trivially
> accessible.

I would disagree with that. I'd say it was vital to know that the
battery isn't about to run out just when you need to make an important
call. To my mind, that information has to be on the front screen. But
the information is not resident i.e. it's not visible as part of
screen, it's transient. I agree that it's accessible but as a user I
want to see it, much like I would glance at a watch. I don't want to
know that it's 14:56:32, I just like to know that it's about 5 to 3.

> The other things you mention are in part due to the early phase of
> development.
> 
> I'd also be interested if you'd care to post back how you find the
> device after a month of usage.

OK. Will do. Do you want there or elsewhere? I'm aware that this is not
probably not the right place for some of the comments I made.

But to stoke the fire a bit, where are the profiles? I want to switch
to silent/quiet mode as I did this afternoon while playing snooker.
Where are the multiple calendars? I have one for beer festivals on the
N900. I can't create any more on the Jolla.