Updated: 26/07/2005
This is my wish list for UI changes to the Nokia 8800 (our review here). Plus, they make sense. :D They are basically very very small tweaks which will really improve usability. (albeit the current version is not entirely bad, just not ideal.)
Updated: 23/07/2005
This is my wish list for UI changes to the Nokia 8800 (our review here). Plus, they make sense. :D They are basically very very small tweaks which will really improve usability. (albeit that the current version is not entirely bad, just not ideal.)
NB: "Center selection key" refers to the button in the middle of the directional pad.
1. Menu positionings should rethought: It is definitely a bonus that the selection appears in the center; but for that to be completely useful the menu positioning should either be user-customizable, or at least changed. The programs at positions 2, 4, 6 and 8 should be those which are most frequently used on a regular basis: I'm sure that "settings" at least, does not qualify; nor should "contacts", on the basis that they are accessible from the standby screen.
2. Menus are not always necessary: Selections which are binary (i.e. where there are only two possibilities) should change between the two options when "select" is pressed. There are many examples of this: The "bluetooth menu", "My phone's visibility" under bluetooth menu, "vibrating alert" when you are personalising a profile, ectera.
3. Applications settings should be under profiles: The "Application settings" should probably be completely determined on a per profile basis. (i.e. it should be under "profiles" instead of under the options in the applications folder.) If this is regarded as non-ideal because of the number of options this will add to each profile, at the very least "application sounds" should be moved there.
4. Contact search can be improved: It should be redesigned such that seaches seach both the "first name" and "last name" fields; as in the symbian phonebook.
5. Contact thumbnails should fill the entire screen: Right now, if you assign a picture to a contact, that picture appears as a very small thumbnail when calling or being called by that contact. The picture should be expanded to cover the whole screen, especially because the actual screen size is not that large. For an example of this, look at the call from iPod 3G in this FSCaller review.
6. Left selection key should be used more: Right now, there are various places where the center selection key is the only one usable, even though previously the left selection key was used on multiple occasions to get to that place. I suggest that in such places, the left selection key be made to work the same way as the center selection key. I realise that this may impunge upon UI standardization; this may be easily dealt with by allowing the center selection key to maintain it's prominence (by leaving "select" in the middle of the screen at the bottom of the display) but allowing the left selection key to have that same effect when pressed. This is REALLY a problem when trying to delete messages. You are required to skip between the right and center selection keys twice. *yowl of frustration*
7. Screensaver options: It should be possible for both the date and time to be shown as a screen saver, the analog clock is very hard to read, and the screensaver activiation should not cause the backlight to come on.
8. Messages: Please please reintroduce the option which allows old text messages to be automaticaly deleted when the phone runs out of message storage space.
9. T9 Word Completion: This is available on the Nokia 6230i, it should be made available on all series 40 phones (and probably series 60 phones as well). While I have heard several reports that it is rather useless because of the limited dictionary, this should not be a problem when users can add words to the dictionary. I think that, actually, it will be very useful. Also, there is no reason that the Nokia 6230i can have it, but Nokia's flagship phone cannot! (although there is that other thing about how the Nokia 6230i has a 1.3MP camera while the Nokia 8800 limps along with a 0.5MP camera; this is more forgivable because pictures taken from regular camera phones are still not really comparable. Hopefully this is a firmware rather than a hardware limitation.)
10. keylocking: It should be possible to supress the display of the "lock keypad" option when the silde mechanism is closed. It really is slightly irritating, plus it serves no useful purpose: even when it is unlocked the only thing pressing buttons does is to make the backlight come on. This is quite harmless.
11. This is a bug. While the "go to" menu on the left selection key has been done very well; you can select which applications you would like to have accessible, and the order they are in. Unfortunately, the e-mail application always reappears in this menu after the phone has been reset. So basically you have to either leave the phone on all the time, or delete the e-mail option whenever you switch the phone on and off.
12. This is game-related. The lack of snake kills. Even though it's very nice how several of the games the Nokia 8800 comes with (Street Race, Chess) have bluetooth multiplayer. We want snake bluetooth multiplayer!!!
13. This is battery related. It is also unlikely to be really fixed; but I really must say that the battery life is quite awful. It is absolutely necessary to charge the phone once a day. Or to carry the extra battery around. (lucky it's small)
14. This is theme related. The, uh, themes, also love to change my ringtone. While I understand how the ringtone is part of a "theme", I really hate having to change my ringtone back whenever I change theme. I might alone on this, though. (and erh. release more themes! )
Next firmware revision? Pretty please nokia? (Current version of firmware seems to be v3.28 26-05-05)
