UI Design for Mobile DevicesMulti-mode communications

Demo

Current UI design challenges

3G pre-IMS and IMS communications functions Spanning communications modes: from store and

forward, to near-real-time, to real-time

Combining IP and circuit switched networks

Combining multiple radios: WiFi and mobile

VoIP in enterprise and consumer use cases

Bridging the chasm between mobile (IMS) and internet approaches

State of play VoIP: Ugly look, naive design, missed

opportunities Failing to make a more flexible form of communication

more attractive

Failing to tame PBX, VoIP usability, accessibility

Mobile: highly polished, but limited Usability for central functions is good enough to make

the mobile phone accessible to every human

Doesn't encompass messaging, PoC, and real time voice in a single UE

Our original goals

Bring the polished quality of mobile UI to VoIP devices

Make a simple, understandable PBX UI in the mobile form factor

Add IM, social networks, and “VoIM” to the mix

Focus on communication – not music, TV, games, location services, etc.

Do it using a modern approach to platforms and implementation

Target applications

3G and IMS

WiFi in mobile handsets

Enterprise VoIP and FMC

Consumer pre-IMS mashups of IP and mobile applications

Enablers

The new baseline is 3G SoCs

Ubiquity of applications processors and/or virtualization obliterate the smartphone/feature-phone boundary

PDA-based UI is being replaced by new generation smart mobile devices – iPhone, Danger, Android

Managed language system (Java) + open OS (Linux) = smart open mobile devices

Technologically similar

Transvirtual

SavaJe

Java FX Mobile

Danger

Android

Blackberry?

Architecture

Good UI is more than skin deep: The UI designer creates a world for the user to manipulate

Architecture must support UI design goals Abstracting protocols

Translating from protocols to items in a “communication world”

Make it simple and enjoyable

Abstracting protocols

Cover all relevant protocols for telephony and near-real-time messaging

Provide a consistent API

Provide a coherent event stream

Enables building a universal call state machine

Architecture diagram

Keep it simple No pop-ups, no dialogs

No confirmation, except when user data can be permanently destroyed

You can always do the thing the screen was meant to enable you to do – no “dead spots”

One type of object per screen

Softkeys are navigation shortcuts – no “verbs” on softkeys

Consistency in forward/back/home behavior

The user's communications world

Services: The mobile network, the IP PBX at work, Yahoo IM, GoogleTalk, etc.

Contacts: Contacts have addresses that can be reached by at least one of the services you use

Sessions: Conversations with contacts The user can have many live sessions, and one

current (not on hold) realtime voice session

There is a history of session

Some sessions are favorites

Novel, but familiar

Sessions bring multimedia, multi-mode, and multi-service communication into the heart of the phone UI

Sessions are generic, and have uniform and familiar behavior

Familiar operations on mobile calls work the same way Generic operations on objects

Never lead the user down a dead end

Demo

Measuring our progress

Is it simple?

Is it familiar?

Does the user do more – did we successfully provide access to power?

Is it applicable to high-value problems: IMS, dual-mode, 3G, enterprise communications?

How far into mass-market hardware can it go?