Thread: Maemo Advocacy
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ragnar is offline ragnar
2007-07-10 , 09:53
Posts: 631 | Thanked: 1,123 times | Joined on Sep 2005 @ Helsinki
#244
Originally Posted by Milhouse View Post
Ragnar - if you want to see how effective your products can be when you pay attention to UI design, UI consistency and maximising the end user experience, look no further than Apple.

On the other hand, If Nokia are willing to stand by while partner companies (with whom one would assume Nokia have some kind of influence) offer major, top billing, applications (such as Skype) on the Nokia platform that subvert and undermine the _overall_ user experience then fine with me - just don't expect Nokia to be in this business when other tablet companies do UI right and take away your customers.

Please hurry and convince the developers to use consistent contact handling because the clock is ticking and after two years, two devices, and 3 major releases of Maemo (a fourth is not far away ) for you to say that contact handling services is still at a very early stage does not fill me with much hope for the future.
Milhouse, please don't think that I wouldn't be aware what Apple is doing. I am very much aware what they are doing.

Apple is running things from a quite different perspective: they have a basically closed system (for instance in the iPod or iPhone), where they control the overall user experience, what gets in the product and how it is presented there. (Well and you don't see Skype or Gizmo there.)

The Maemo platform is an open system, for better or for worse. (Yes, once again, this split is not black and white, but it does have quite much implications.) If you look at desktop operating systems, they are open. Which leads to the issue that it is generally hard(er) to achieve those kinds of integrated experiences - at least initially - but on the other hand it is more appealing to create and bring those features to such a platform.

In these cases, I don't think that's really a matter of convincing developers to use the system. I don't think it has anything to do with the developers, really. The question is not which one is easier to develop. It's about controlling the user experience of using that particular service or feature. On some levels there is a conflict of interest between an invidual feature/service provider and then us as the general UI framework design providers. Company A doesn't want to see service A next to competing service B. However, it's an evolving field, and we see what we can do about this.

"When other tablet companies do UI right" - if it only would be so simple.