The touch screen smartphones are sleek and immediately respond to your gestures. Is there a standard set of gestures or does each have its own body language? In reviewing the standard gestures of the iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and Android, there does seem to be a core set across them. The following table illustrates the core set of gestures to use in applications.
Table 1. Gestures for Mobile Phones with Touch Screens
Although there are so many options for smartphone platforms, the iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 are the top players trying to shoulder their way to become the selected platform for applications.
So what does each offer? How is the user experience different for each platform? At a high level, the iPhone provides the strongest UI guidelines with the least room for customization. This provides for a seamless experience (usually) across iPhone apps. Whereas the Android allows for the most flexibility with some minimal UI standards, the Windows Phone 7 lies somewhere in between the two.
When designing for multiple platforms, keep in mind that the user experience may vary across the Home screen, Gestures, Menus, Navigation, Search, etc. We’ll take a look at the Home screen and tackle the others in upcoming posts.
So let’s take a look at each of the Home screens – the starting point for smartphone users. How are these home screens defined?
Home Screens
So we hear about change a lot these days. We all participate in a larger and unseemingly lightning fast way with social media. Companies are listening more via social media channels and making decisions based upon trends. These changes may not only affect the products we get, how companies position themselves, how they react to problems and ideas, but also how they interact or serve us.
Check out what Simon Mainwaring said at the Cannes Festival: http://simonmainwaring.com/media/cannes-advertising-festival-seminar-social-media-as-an-instrument-of-change/
He has some good points about the relationship between advertising and social media. But I think a couple of points need to be driven home more:
#8 Yes, The future of profit is purpose (or social responsibility). But…Social media may actually widen the information gap between those who have access and the those who don’t. What happens to the less fortunate non-netizens (old 90s term) who don’t have the tools to leverage learnings from social media?
#9 Social media allows for distributed expertise, but the expertise gathered from social media can be hairy and diluted. We don’t necessarily need to look up info on consumer reports or visit a doctor. We can just search on Twitter or WebMD. We, however, need to make sure we are making a truly educated decision because let’s face it… There is a lot of mud out there. The good thing is that there are more and more tools that help us distill the information into valid insights.
Want to talk more? Maybe I’ll see you at the Atlanta Mashable meetup:
http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/7478/
The iPad is not only hot news, but controversial too, or at least Steve Jobs is:
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=144135
So the point that Dumenco makes in this article is that Jobs may be exerting too much power by being a gatekeeper for the kind of content that will be viewed on the iPad. What an interesting conundrum. In a free society, we don’t want to be restricted too much. On the other hand, “Who has the right to censor content?” Networks censor the content of their shows… to an extent. Parents censor content for their children. Is it too much to accept that Jobs should be able to set a standard too? Afterall, maybe he just wants to leave a legacy, feeling that his work has done more of what he defines as “good” than not in this unpredictable world.
So, there is a lot of buzz going on about Apple’s new baby. Maybe we don’t need it because we have a nice IPhone and a steaming laptop already. Is it just a step up from our everyday IPhone, but a cool counterpart to the home computer? Or, is it a revolutionary product? Even though I think it may just be a bigger IPhone, I like it… or at least the potential it affords. Let’s face it. Although it is a bit pricey, it is like having a Surface table in your hands at an affordable price. We all love our IPhones (maybe not the service because of the dropped calls), but we can’t get enough of the maps, surfing, calendar, email, and cool apps all in one device. Now, we can have all of that, but not have to look into a 3×5 card device with a little more mobility than a laptop and more usability than an IPhone. For example, wouldn’t it be great to turn on the IPad to create a lovely menu for each day of the week, then use one of the upcoming apps to assemble a nice shopping list that, by the way, shows you all the great deals at your favorite grocery stores. You could sync up your grocery list app and use your IPhone at the stores because you probably wouldn’t want to carry around that IPad at the local Whole Foods. Even though the IPad looks cool, you may look too much like an eager geek. Then… after doing all your shopping, you could have a nice meal plan for the week that tracks your nutrition on an ongoing basis. Finally, when prepping each meal, you have a nice IPad to display your meals and recipes. I’ve always wanted a great electronic device to display my recipes, and I think the IPad might be it. So, what do you think. Is it a revolution or just an evolution? Either way, I’m waiting a bit until some of the kinks get worked out (or until they get a stand to hold the IPad, so I don’t have to strain my neck as I’m looking at the recipes).