S60 - Novice or Advanced?
Ok this is simply a fantastic article and you really need to read the whole thing. It’s here, and it’s by Steve Litchfield. He’s been thinking about all the new users coming to S60 recently, as well as all the new features that are being added with Feature Packs and whatnot, and ponders if perhaps there should be 2 versions of S60.
Personally, I think Steve’s idea is great. Basically, when you startup your S60 for the first time, it’ll ask if you’re new to S60. If you are, you can use the device in "Novice Mode," which basically hides alot of the "extras" that power users are really the only ones using. It’ll help clean things up a bit, so it’s not quite so intimidating to the first time user.
Then, once you’ve been using it for a while and are a bit more attuned
to it, you can either continue using in Novice mode, or you can go to
your Settings menu and opt for "Advanced Mode," which will open up the
more…advanced…things that the typical Average Joe user wouldn’t
normally care about.
I wonder what the S60 team thinks about this idea? I can think of a ton
of friends and family who would get great use out of S60, but only if
they could "ease" into it. My dad, for example, currently has a
Motorola V551. He likes it, but the things he uses on it (calendar,
camera, etc) are MUCH more robust on the S60 platform. But I can’t get
him an S60 cause I know it’d scare him away initially. He’s not one to
have patience learning new things. However, if I could get him an N75
or something, start him in Novice Mode, he could learn kind of the
basics, and then when he asks, "hey, can I do this?" or "Can this phone
do that?" then I can swap him over to Advanced mode and let him fully
explore S60.
What do you think? Is this "dumbing down" and therefore bad, or do you
think it’s a great way to ease more people into using S60?
I say let them sink or swim! The best way for people to learn and master s60 is to sit down and open every app and function. Trial and error seems to work for me but it is a kind gesture to those who are easily intimidated! I think S40 has progressed so much you can almost consider it s60 light. Actually though, I can see the real value in this for those consumers that want the multi-media functions of say an n73/N93 but dont trully need any of the smartphone applications and features. If Nokia would start producing some s40’s that are up to snuff with phones like Sharp they could really start to capture the attention of American Consumers. Throw an affordable 3mp s40 on the market and people might bite. That would lead them down the road to the addiction many of us currently have…s60 = )..almost like a gateway drug!
I kind of like the idea, and have been thinking about the same thing too.
Two things make me hesitant:
1) This sounds like a major development effort, and I don’t even want to talk about double testing, double documentation, etc. Would the benefits be worth the effort?
2) “it’ll ask if you’re new to S60″ => what if most people (both new and old S60 users) didn’t know the answer?
Tommi,
I don’t think it’d be a major development effort. It’s just temporarily hiding features. Think like Cingular’s branding, only user-disable-able. However, I can see the concern over if the user didn’t know, or wasn’t sure.
It’s a raw idea, for sure, but just something to think about.