A demo video showing the new S60 touch UI in action has just been posted to one of the “official” S60 blogs:
http://blogs.s60.com/seeintos60/2008/02/s60_ui_innovations_demo.html
In order to save you the hassle of looking at it yourself - essentially, we are looking at evolution rather than revolution. Nokia did not redesign the S60v3 interface we know and love - they just made slight additions and added touchscreen support in order to reduce the time needed to scroll around with the 5way nav.
I personally think that existing S60 applications will be “compatible” with the new OS right from the start - as already said, the UI widgets essentially stay the same; you only get a new way to interact with them. As for newly-developed programs…S60 Touch apparently isn’t as flexible as operating systems developed for touchscreens - for example, I assume that a dialog like the one shown below(from Binary Clock for Palm OS) will not be possible without custom UI:
On the other hand, of course, this will probably mean that S60 Touch apps will probably will be usable without the touchscreen.
In the end, I am pleasantly surprised at how well Nokia has managed to integrate the touchscreen while not breaking the existing S60 “look-and-feel”. While a dedicated touchscreen OS definitely is more “flexible”, Nokia’s compromise between one-handed usability and flexibility seems to be pretty close to the sweet spot.
What do you think?
Related posts:
I am using Palm since 2000. My last Palm was Tungsten C, my last phone was Nokia 9210i Communicator. So, I have experience with both normal and touchscreens.
A month ago I have switched to Treo 650. It was surprising that all the Palm programs I used on other Palm modells has changed. On the Treo you can use not just menus (Palm OS devices has dedicated hard/soft button for pulling down the menus), but all the appearing buttons, popups, checkboxes and other widgets by the 5-way navi key. OK, it’s not as comfortable as a single poke, but works. It’s very similar to Communicator’s interface, or - it’s only my opinion - a bit more comfortable.
Grab a Treo and try it!
Hi ern0,
thank you so much for your comment!
In fact, I use a Treo every day - and have to say that I still need to take out the stylus for most advanced apps. Yes, of course, you can do email without the stylus most of the time - but using the stylus still is better. As for more “difficult” tasks like selecting text or moving files/xyz or just scrolling long lists…
For an extreme example of “bad UI”, imagine having to use a Windows Mobile device without the stylus…
In the end, what I wanted to say was that an OS IMHO can be designed either for the stylus OR the pen - hybrid forms always need to compromise one of the two…
Or, do you think that an OS can be created that is perfectly usable in both 1hand and stylus modes?
Best regards
Tam Hanna
I must say the S60 Touch UI Demo looks verry good. Only, I wonder if I am gonna buy one
Hi Henk,
first of all, congratz to your cool web site!
Let’s all wait until the first box ships - then we will know more!
Best regards
Tam Hanna