Published: January 16, 2009 in articles » usability by Thomas Baekdal
The last thing I expected to happen this January was to see a product from Palm that would be really impressive. But the unexpected sometimes happens, and the new Palm Pre is very cool - especially from an interactive design perspective.
Palm presented their new Palm Pre at a keynote earlier this week (see video below), and even at the start you knew something special was going on. You could see it in their faces. They had made something they were really proud about.
And the Palm Pre is impressive.
Apple revolutionized the ease-of-use of Smart phones, which before the iPhone was severely lacking. But Palm has now taken that to another level. They have made an interaction concept that is more powerful, yet easier to use than both the iPhone and the Android.
While there are many similarities with the iPhone in terms of the interface, there are a number of new things that really makes a difference.
First of all is the mode-free approach. All other smart phones (except Windows Mobile) puts you into a "mode", where you have to complete one thing, before you can do something else.
This is especially noticeable on the iPhone. You cannot, while writing an email, switch over to the browser (or another email), to check something. But you can do that with the Palm Pre. This is an exceptionally important element to having a smooth workflow.
The mode-free approach also extends to other uses. On other Smartphones you are either sending an SMS, or an instant message - but never both. On the Palm Pre, you can send out an SMS, receive an GTalk reply, respond using your AIM chat, and get a SMS in return. And it is all been treated as a single conversation, in a single view, and in a single interface.
No other companies allow such fluid interaction between many different sources. Not even on the desktop.
Another thing, which the Palm Pre does well, is that there is a very short distance to anything. The number of steps required to do things have been reduced to near nothing.
This is mostly due to heavy use of gestures. There will be a bit of a learning curve, and there is really no secondary navigation to help you if you get stuck. IPhone users are probably not going to have a problem picking up on it, nor will the new generation. But us "old people" will experience some confusion at first.
But, just as the iPhone made everything much easier by introducing gesture based interaction, so will the Palm Pre. The initial learning curve is simply just something to get over with. It will be well worth it.
And finally, the always-annoying notifications have been put in their place. When you are notified of something, the notification is not locking your screen. Instead it shows you the event, but allows you to complete whatever you are working on before you have to take action on it.
All in all, the Palm Pre looks very impressive. I don't think it will have as much of an impact as the iPhone; it will just be one of the many choices. The iPhone still leads the pack, mostly due to its integration with iTunes and the App Store.
(via Palm)
Matías Duarte seems pretty proud about the "invisible UI". Someone should have told him about the benefits of "knowledge in the world". From the look of it, this user interface will not be easy to learn and will frustrate its users.
First you have to remember all invisible functions and gestures. Quick, how do you see from which sources a contact's data comes? Who on earth would guess, that it is the staple icon behind the contact's photo? I bet there are many more features like that - useful but invisible.
Then they got rid of application modes (which is great), but they created new modes for gestures. Sometimes gestures are correctly mapped to the view, sometimes not. Example: You have to flic from right to left in the gestures area to go back. But when you look at a picture the same movement is used to go forward to the next picture! And on top of that, the transition on screen from a list to an entry is a zoom - but to go back you use a horizontal swipe? That's not mapped at all!
And it doesn't look very foolproof. If you want to swipe up the applications menu while looking at the cards, you might accidentally start the motion not in the gesture area, but on the main screen. And suddenly your currently displayed process is gone. Whoops. Why not use a simple close button for removing a card?
Sure, I'm just guessing from the looks. But this UI doesn't look very promissing. Let's hope I'm wrong.
To close this rant, I do like the card-process-overview-thing. And I do like the messages displayed at the bottom of the screen. But these won't counter the problems the UI has.
Keep working on it Palm!
Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer
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Lachlan, I too am jealous... the iPhone/iPod touch's UI suddenly seem so limited.
Robert, I am currently in the process of writing an article about these new UI's, although I I see it in a different. There is a learning curve, and that may be a problem. But there is an even bigger problem in not doing it this way (although consistent gesture actions is important.)
Sure the Pre Palm looks as the first iPhone competitor since last year when Apple lanched the revolutionary phone, and some features appears to be rather more usefull like multitasking, copy/paste, etc... But, and there is a big but, Palm Pre do'nt have Mac OS X, and that's why the iPhone is so great and evolutionary...
I don´t like the iphone. i have allways problems with signal, on-off etc. blackberry is better - the new palm also.
Palm rocks!Their new phone isvery impressiveThe iphone is just a stupid piece of s***.i mean what's with all that "theres an app for just about everything"crappy!
The iphone has no chance against Pre.Go Palm!!!!!!!!!!
I ran 16 applications at one time and no problem! Mind you again 16 apps!!! PALM PRE!! GET IT GUYS!!
"From the look of it, this user interface will not be easy to learn and will frustrate its users."
- Well, I have the Pre and I have had no frustrations so far. It's very intuitive to use and functions very smoothly.
You have to flick from right to left in the gestures area to go back. But when you look at a picture the same movement is used to go forward to the next picture!
- This seems logical to me. When flipping through photos you drag the sequence to the left to see the photos to the right. This is a physically correct motion. When going back in a browser you are familiar with hitting the back button that has an arrow on it pointing left, on the pre you use the gesture area to draw a line to the left to go back. Simple.
And on top of that, the transition on screen from a list to an entry is a zoom - but to go back you use a horizontal swipe? That's not mapped at all!
- There is a difference between a gesture and the visual transition. If there was a transition to fade in how would gesture a fade out? The gesture to go back to where you were is to swipe left, the resulting transition is just a fun visual effect that in this case is perfectly comprehensive and appropriate to the gesture you made.
And it doesn't look very foolproof. If you want to swipe up the applications menu while looking at the cards, you might accidentally start the motion not in the gesture area, but on the main screen.
- When looking at the cards you don't need to swipe up the applications menu. The icon to open the menu is already visible at the bottom of the screen you simply tap it.
And suddenly your currently displayed process is gone. Whoops. Why not use a simple close button for removing a card?
- Couldn't you just as easily tap the close button by mistake? Closing an application is actually very difficult to do unintentionally. It hasn't happened to me yet.
Sure, I'm just guessing from the looks. But this UI doesn't look very promising. Let's hope I'm wrong.
- You're wrong. ;)
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Jan 16
2009
Lachlan
I watched the keynote, and while i think the pre is an iphone competitor, it obviously only beats the iphone in certain categories. Multitasking, ultimate search, integration (contacts, IM etc.) and (probably) copy and paste own the iphone, while browsing and other basic functions are a close call or matter of preference. As far as media goes, the iphone will most likely (from what I've seen) be superior. Still, as an iphone user who is used to having the "jesus phone", I'm definately worried about my phones position in the market, and am rather jealous (esp. Multitasking). Fingers crossed for apple to take note, though with Steve off for health reasons nothing meaningfull may get done.