With Rafe off enjoying the British Grand Prix build up, Ewan and I recruited AAS regular David Gilson and The Phones Show Chat co-host Tim Salmon to fill his shoes for Insight 126. Scampering through the week's Symbian-related news, there's plenty to listen to, see below for the full list of topics covered.
Read on in the full article.
I think that when users complain about the UI of Symbian that they are generally not speaking about the functionality or overall concept of the UI but rather it's perceived quality of implementation. I do not believe that Symbian has much of an issue with the functionality of the UI, but it does fall down on the user experience.
Our first impression of an OS is how 'smooth' everything flows and how aesthetically appealing it is, which is one area that Symbian seems to be lagging behind it's counterparts. Simplistically this is how quickly and smoothly the UI responds to our requests and how attractive the icons and transition effects are. More specifically this may include things such as how smoothly a list scrolls - if you have a list of music tracks, or a set of photos that you are browsing do you get any lags and is the frame rate silky smooth - and the user experience of the built in applications such as the web browser (is it quick and easy to operate, and are there issues navigating a page), the application store (does it prompt you if any of your installed applications have received updates, for example) and the music player (does it remember where you were in an audio book when you reboot the phone or plug in a USB cable - one of my pet hates of Symbian!).
Personally I am perfectly happy with the functionality of the UI (bar the inconsistencies), but feel that the user experience, aesthetics and response of the UI and built in applications leaves a lot to be desired compared with the competition. Will this be an area where S^3 improves things markedly?