-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 arne anka wrote: >> using ms4 and if I was a granny and hit a power button I'd think I just >> switched off the phone, not suspend. If I hit it again I'd think that >> I'd powered it on again, not resume. > > a "grannie" would be able to kill herself with a spoon ... > everything above a kitchen knive requires understanding how the device > works, which means reading soem kind of documentation before use -- if > the device does not work as expected, it's usually a matter of pebkac. > especially for a device with so limited a number of physical input > elements it should be perfectly clear to any user that the two buttons > have more than a simple on/off function but a broad number depending > upon the situation. > > it might be an option (as usual) to make the behaviour of the pwr button > configurable: > a) do only on/off > b) do suspend/resume and on/off > c) expose a menu to select the desired action > > a) would be for what you call "grannies" > b) for those preferring fast and minmal inavise action > c) for the rest > > focusing solely on the (imho hardly likely) group of "grannies" would > ostracize the number of users willing to use and looking for a more > advanced device not tied up in the conventional paradigms of user > interaction. > building smartphones for "grannies" is a task a lot of companies aspire > -- and i doupt openmoko would be able to survive! > have a look at palm: they basically abandoned palmos in favour of wince > -- and their phones a re to expansive and too bad to cope with stuff > from htc or so, they left their niche and found no other ... >
Cheers for that you made me laugh with the grannies with spoons comment ;-) I sort of disagree with you. People do not read the manual when they get a device. They try to use it and if they have to resort to the manual the designer has failed. I can't remember the last time I read the manual for a phone, camera, DVD player. Devices performing everyday things like a mobile phone in the 21t century should be as close to intuitive as makes no difference. No offence to anybody on this list but like a lot of you I'm happy enough with the command line for a lot of stuff and that's maybe why we're not that good at usability. I'm not suggesting that we get "tied up the conventional paradigms of user interactions" but just a bit of usability. I think even a granny given an iPod for the first time would have a fairly good stab at playing some music. Obviously getting music into it would be a stretch. I also don't think that OpenMoko should even attempt to give use smart phones for grannies. They should give us a hardware platform and let us, the community, do the rest. Look at the xBox media centre for the original xBox built by a community, as far as I know, and a really good usable piece of Software IMHO. At the end of the day I'm still amazed that I've got an open platform. When my capable laptop for programming arrives and I get some time I'm going to have a menu on the power button ;-) Thanks again for the laugh. Grannies with spoons -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFJLb++XlbjSJ5n4BARAnw3AJ9+4rcX4UZPK4e9CoMaGCnUhkS/zgCdFqEZ na7pfezQmbfeQ1Up2yKrIFg= =bW5x -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Smartphones-userland mailing list Smartphones-userland@linuxtogo.org http://lists.linuxtogo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/smartphones-userland
