Nokia's user interface design sucks!

I probably could have expressed myself in a more polite way in the subject, but why bother? Nokia is technically superior to every other cell phone manufacturer but they give way too much advantages to others by sucking in user interface design. Let me give just a few
examples.

I speak with the experiences I had with Nokia E90 Communicator and the intensive time I spent using the device on my 5 days long motorcycle trip. Nokia E90 Communicator served as my cell phone (well, duh), Internet device, camera and GPS navigator. I wanted to really test the device and see if it is up to what Nokia wants us to think it is capable of. I will concentrate on the user interface for now but will continue in later posts on for example the Nokia Navigator (aka. smart2go).

Let's start with the sluggishness of the UI. It came as no surprise to me that Symbian/Series 60 UI is slow. But at times it is frustratingly slow! Why does opening an sms message have to take several seconds? Or loading image thumbnails even longer?

Then the UI inconsistency. If I want to attach an image via a web form with the web browser I only see the file names. That does not come to much help when I see for example 20070806.jpg... But when I attach an image with the email client I get nice thumbnails. It probably isn't that hard to use the same thumbnail component.

Also if I open an image with the web browser I have to see it using the external image viewing application. Why!? Even Opera Mini manages to show pictures inside the browser, and so does Nokias web browser too - if they are embedded inside HTML. Sigh...
Well, let's continue with the image viewing application. I can nicely rotate images but I can't save them rotated.

Related to images it is a nice feature to put your own picture as wallpaper. Quite standard feature nowadays. But Nokia manages to implement it in an aweful way. The image is shown only in the desktop application. So, it is not a big surprise that the clock, application
icons and the backgrounds on selected applet notes are not transparent for example.

Nokia just doesn't get the small details in user interface that makes using the phone FUN, smooth and enjoyable. Now that Apple's iPhone seems to have delivered at least the majority of the hype I hope Nokia takes notice of this and starts focusing on the UI.

Good beer!

Here in Lappeenranta I tasted for the first time a beer called Snake Dog Indian Pale Ale. It was really good! And it has a nice name as well :) It seems to be brewed by a small brewery in Colorado, USA.

SST 2007: Lahti

I am currently writing this from Lahti with my Nokia E90 Communicator. This is a true test for the communicator since I dont have any other Internet device with me nor camera. So far E90 has been working fine. WLAN from the hotel work and previusly I was ircing with 3G. I use Nokia Maps for navigation and planning future paths. Wikipedia is a great source for interesting places I should visit on my trip. Nice device :)

The weather in Lahti is fabulous. It was kind a hot driving my bike with all the bike clothing on but the trip went fine. I will be post pictures I took from Lahti with the E90 once I get back home but I will post some random updates via the communicator to this blog as well.

Nokia E90 Communicator in photo test

I am heading for a motorcycle adventure riding around Finland's beautiful countryside for about 1500km and visiting 5 cities. Naturally I intended to take a camera with me. But because of weight and capacity issues when traveling with the motorcycle I have to minimize my luggage.

So I thought I put my Nokia E90 Communicator up for a test! I take all my pictures on the travel with it instead of my Canon E701 IS :) Let's see how it does. I will be commenting on that after my ride here on my blog.

PS. Yes, I will also use my E90 Communicator as my GPS navigator, Internet-communication device and memo during my travel. And I will also use Nokia Sports Tracker as my location plotter to later look through different parts of the travel :)