Amp'd Disallows Handset Sales
I recently sold an Amp'd Kyocera Angel handset on eBay, and was disappointed to later learn that Amp'd requires all subscribers to purchase a new phone from Amp'd directly. They are the only carrier that I know of in the world that has this policy; all other carriers allow giving or selling phones to others.
Amp'd policy seems self-defeating to me, and borders on fraud. Their policy takes locking phones one step further, locking to an individual rather than locking to the operator.
What do you think?
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July 26, 2006
SMS Application Design Guidelines
There are no written standards for SMS application design, so here are some guidelines. Please comment here or email me your thoughts.
1. Paginate clustered messages. See the Pagination section, below.
2. Answer ‘?’, ‘help’, and ‘info’ messages with helpful information. Including a link to a WAP or HTML web site with more detailed information.
3. Never use blank lines, which might confuse readers when they appear just above the fold. Use dashed lines instead to separate content.
4. When returning an error message, identify the problem, offer steps to correct the problem, and a link to more information (WAP or HTML).
5. Support common misspellings of commands, especially missed characters.
6. Always allow ‘Stop’, ‘Quit’, ‘Cease’, and ‘End’ to be accepted as a command to discontinue sending additional messages, such as to end a subscription service. Upon receipt of a termination command, it is acceptable to send a confirmation message, that may include instructions to restart the same service. However, never require a final confirmation, since the ‘Stop’ message is clear enough.
Pagination
It is not unusual for text message creation clients to support more than 160 7-bit characters, splitting outbound messages into chunks of 160 or fewer characters. Some user interfaces indicate the number of messages that will be sent, but none effectively convey the cost to the sender. Most clients simply indicate the number of characters that have been entered, and the consumer learns how many messages are sent after committing the Send action.
In your own applications that send messages in clusters, it is important to put page header information at the start of each SMS, indicating the current message and the total number. Ending messages that continue with “…” is also a good idea. AIM for SMS begins clustered messages with “FromName: -X/Y- ” and ends messages that continue with “…”
Since SMS delivery is not synchronous, “-2/2-” could arrive before “-1/2-”, potentially confusing users. However, delivery timing is out of the application designer’s control.
Designers have opportunities for creativity with pagination, but keeping it simple conserves characters. AIM for SMS uses seven characters to display “ -1/2- ”. The extra spaces and hyphens (‘-’) took up four out of 160… 2.5% for visual clarity does not seem like a bad tradeoff to me.
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July 14, 2006
Handheld Usability Sold Out!
The eponymous book for which this site is named has just about sold out! Wiley have contacted me about writing a revision, which I am carefully considering.
Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions, please submit them here. Either based on the original work, or things you think should be included.
I'm currently planning to include several case studies, which will illustrate design areas, such as SMS, photo, music, video, and designing for an older audience.
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Novel Input Shootout at Mobile HCI
I'll be moderating a panel entitled "Novel Input Shootout" at Mobile HCI this year. Mobile HCI is the 8th international conference on human computer interaction with mobile devices and services, 12 - 15 September, 2006 in Espoo, Finland.
This panel is meant to promote mobile phone alpha character input technologies that are not yet widely deployed, and that are ready for commercialization. Four speakers have been recruited to this panel, each a recognized innovator.
Howard Gutowitz, Eatoni’s EQ3
The EQ3 keyboard was designed for email-oriented mobile phones, with the intent to converge a QWERTY keyboard with a telephone keypad. EQ3 uses the familiar QWERTY layout, adapted to a mobile phone keypad. EQ3 claims that its predictions are much more accurate than standard predictive text. The EQx series is engineered and patented by Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc. Eatoni designs integrated hardware/software systems for predictive text. It has been in business for more than six years, and includes Siemens, Philips, and Panasonic among its customers.
David Levy, Digit Wireless’ Fastap
Fastap is a patented new approach to keypad design that allows up to three times as many easy-to-use keys to fit into a standard sized mobile phone. The result is an evolution of the 50-year-old 12-button keypad. David Levy, Founder and CTO of Digit Wireless, leads invention and development of new technologies and interfaces. Prior to starting Digit Wireless, David spent time as the Director of Invention Development at Arthur D. Little, taught design at MIT, and ran TH, Inc., a one-person invention development and licensing company. David also headed Portable Device Ergonomics at Apple Computer for five years. David has been profiled in Fortune Magazine and The New Yorker, and was named as one off the 50 “fastest” people by Fast Company Magazine. He holds undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees from MIT in Mechanical Engineering.
Michael Longé, XT9 Mobile Interface
Michael is a Program Director at AOL's Wireless division. Working at Tegic Communications since nearly its founding, he was instrumental in the design and evolution of T9 Text Input for wireless phones and hand-held computers. He repeated that success in the design and specification of the first Instant Messaging applications for mobile phones. In addition to managing the division's UI/Usability team for a number of years, he is responsible for co-inventing and patenting key elements of Tegic's next-generation technology as embodied in its XT9 Mobile Interface. Mr. Longé is also President and Founder of Designer Software, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in custom software design and prototyping.
Wayne Rasanen, IN10DID
Wayne is a TV Director and Editor with more than 20 years of experience. He is the President of the Tampa Bay Inventors Council and inventor of the IN10DID input system. He discovered an interesting relationship between 26 letters and 10 fingers. To produce the alphabet, all that was required was a single tap of each finger for the first ten letters, one thumb shifted for the next eight letters, and the other thumb shifted for the last eight letters. This discovery led him to include all other input onto the ten keys in a logical way, to provide a complete input system without complex chording. IN10DID can thus be deployed inside gloves with a switch in each fingertip, in a standard cell phone, or any device with 10 buttons that allow any two to be engaged.