
I just got a new smartphone – a T-Mobile Wing, in fact, and I like it a lot. I’ve never used Windows Mobile for any extended length of time, though, so I’m still learning a few things. This morning, while trying to figure out what a button did, I caught myself doing something astounding, and I gained a whole new appreciation of affordances.
This phone, if you’re not familiar, is a touch-screen smartphone with a slide-out keyboard, so if I’m doing anything remotely complicated, I’m usually using a stylus to point to the screen. This is sort of interesting all by itself, because in many ways the stylus acts as an interface metaphor for a mouse, which is, in many ways, acting as an interface metaphor for a finger. It’s no wonder parts of the UI are screwed up!
Posted on April 3rd, 2008 under Architecture. Tags: Alan Cooper, usability, Windows Mobile. View Comments