A Look At S60 Menu Organization - Part 3
One of the things that makes S60 so great is the ability to customize, down to the main menu, how your phone looks. I’ve already given you a peek into my Crap folder, to see all the various apps and icons that S60 throws at you that I find completely useless or redundant. I also shared my main menu with you, along with what I feel is the most logical layout and organization.
To finish this out, I thought it would be constructive to take a peek at what S60 believes is the most optimal menu layout, by giving my Nokia N95-3 a hard reset and checking out where things are, straight from the factory. I took a few screenshots, and together let’s go through and attempt to find a method to their madness.
Here’s the main menu of the N95-3 with firmware v20.0.011, fresh off the reset:
To be honest, this is actually somewhat logical. However, why would Gallery be front and center, when the phone has a dedicated Gallery button? That seems really redundant to me, and not necessarily what I’d like to highlight when someone first hits the menu. Although I personally put Contacts in Crap, since I set an Active Standby shortcut to it, I can understand that a newcomer to S60 would feel comfortable seeing it on the main screen. The same with Messaging, though I keep Messaging in my menu, as well.
Maps seems logical to have in the main menu, though I think it should be grouped together with the GPS and Landmarks apps, I can see how those might be confusing to a newcomer. Next we have the Music folder, which I usually rename to the more all-encompassing Media. Let’s see what’s in there:
Wow, that folder is jam-packed. Again, as noted before, it’s interesting that the Music Store icon is present, given that this is a U.S.-focused handset, and the Music Store hasn’t launched here, or anywhere in North or South America. Guess that means we should either expect it to launch soon, or not expect another N95-3 firmware update anytime soon. I’m betting on the latter.
I’m also a bit peeved that the Nokia Internet Radio application isn’t pre-installed yet, given that the N95 is one of the tested-and-approved devices. It’s also not currently listed in the Download! client, meaning that a newcomer likely won’t know about it.
Moving back to the main menu, Video Center is right there next to Gallery. Personally, I find Video Center to be a complete and utter waste of space/resources, because even if I ’subscribe’ to a channel, I have to manually download any video to watch it. What’s also interesting is that the Video Center doesn’t throw up the possibly-incompatible warning that the Podcasting app does for certain videos, such as Driving with the Guru. I can’t help but wish that the Video Center was simply incorporated into the Podcasting app somehow, as they seem to do alot of the same functions.
Search has also somehow been gifted with a spot on the main menu, which is silly, particularly on the N95, because it’s hard-coded to be the first thing in the Active Standby screen. It would actually take 4 clicks (not counting using the numbered shortcuts) to use this in the main menu, whereas the Active Standby gives the same experience.
Web being in the main menu is something I don’t really have issue with, either. Like with Maps, I would prefer to have all of the web-related apps in a single folder, but I can admit that’s more of a nit-pick. I’m extremely annoyed that the N-Gage preview is still coming installed on the N95 (and this firmware was made available *after* the official launch), and even MORE annoyed that you can’t remove it without causing problems with the full version. The only way I don’t have an issue with this being here is if it were removed and replaced with the full version, once you download that. It *is* somewhat useful to quickly download the full N-Gage app, but after that, it needs to be gone.
Tools is next, and it contains two sub-folders, Connectivity and Utilities. Here’s what comes in Tools by default:
Hmmm, seems to me that Bluetooth and WLAN wizard (can’t they just label it ‘WiFi’ already?) should belong in Connectivity, no? Aren’t they basically ways to connect with something else? Sync, Profiles, and Settings make sense in the Tools folder, I suppose, as does Log (if you really need the extra features not given with the Send key). File Manager is logical, as well, since, after all, it’s a tool.
Here’s what’s in the Connectivity folder:
Aside from the Wireless Keyboard, I can tolerate all of these as ‘Connectivity’ related apps. As noted, I think the GPS-related ones should be relocated, along with Home Media, but I can see the logic in them being here. Wireless Keyboard should be in Office, really.
Moving on to the Utilities folder:
First off, Tools and Utilities are basically the same thing. Since you obviously can’t ship a product with a Crap folder, why not label this System or something else that indicates you may want to look in here, but you won’t find anything useful? That being said, 1-touch should be in the Tools base, along with Voice Comm. and Memory. Switch, in my opinion, is better suited to the Connectivity menu. Help and About are both completely 100% useless, though admittedly necessary simply for completeness. Device Mgr. should remain in here, as long as the folder is renamed. 3-D tones should simply be eliminated completely. No one uses it, and I’ve heard it causes problems, anyways. It’s a gimmick, plain and simple.
Back to the menu, we’re up to Applications:
Again, camera is front and center, which is silly, given the dedicated camera button. Why wouldn’t Calendar and Calculator be dropped into the Office folder? Aren’t they office/organizer type applications? The same with clock (though obviously, some, like myself, use it often). The App manager, frankly, is really the only one that makes sense in this folder. We have Share Online, but again, it’s not the latest version (which has now been available for a while, and yet oddly not included in the latest firmware) and it’s not even in the Media folder, which makes zero sense.
Themes, which is also now accessible through Settings, should be in the Tools folder. Ignore Screenshot, I installed that for the purposes of, well, taking screenshots. MyNokia is another one like the Music Store. It’s not available in the U.S., so it’s a completely useless icon. Let me download it later when you’ve enabled it in my area, please.
Moving into the Media folder…
Somewhat like the earlier Music folder, this has a very small amount of items. Recorder is technically music, though I would say it belongs in the Office folder, if anywhere. RealPlayer and Flash Player are OK in here, as is Lifeblog (though it’s since been replaced on the PC side with Nokia Photos), and Activation Keys, based on a previous commenter’s use of it, should be in the Tools folder, or Utilities (again, assuming that’s renamed to System). I still say that Music and Media should be combined, to eliminate an entire folder of confusion for users.
The next folder, Office, is the only one which I have no fault in, other than the fact that it’s buried in the Applications folder:
All of these items are clearly used for mostly Office/business-related tasks, and this is, sadly, the most logical folder on an Nseries device, and there you have it.
I’ll confess, I thought that the default menu layout was *much* more illogical than it really is, so kudos to Nokia and S60 for making improvements. There are definitely some completely silly placements, but overall, I’d have to say that they’re making strides.
Edit - In looking back, I noticed that the Nokia N76’s firmware update last August put things in roughly the same place. If I didn’t already have them setup how I want them, I’d hard reset the other S60 phones on my desk to see how consistent things really are across the board.
It seem like we agree quite well on the S60 menu issue, with a slight difference in definition of what belongs to where.
I do agree that the music folder could have been renamed to something else, but that again leads to a duplicate of two media folders. (One can of course further change the one inside applications).
The biggest problems I see is that the icons of the different dedicated folders are fixed with its own icons. The music with a note / speaker on it, the media with a picture like thingy etc. Upon changing the names of it, it would be a little difference in visuals. Not the biggest problem, but not appearing quite as sleek.
Provided that you have several applications installed on the memory card.
There’s one magnificent difference on the S60 menu from N6600 to N73.
If you swapped your memory card with another one and then put the original one in again, the N6600 would have all the icons placed in the menu, regardless of the arrangement you had previously.
The menu on the N73 (and devices after that) stays the same way as how the icons was arranged on that particular memory card
I don’t know whether that is due to the latter Symbian OS versions or the S60 interface which provides such functionality, but this was truly welcomed.
(I’m mentioning the N6600 here and N73 because these are the last Series60 device and the first S60 3rd edition device I have / had)
That’s a good point, but since moving to the N95 and other newer devices, I’ve found plenty of space to install all of my apps on the internal memory. This not only speeds the phone up a bit, but leaves my memory card free for media and makes it a non-issue to swap freely between phones.
True, I’ve experienced the speed improvement when starting up applications that are installed in the phone memory.
I try to install my applications after the following principle:
1. Applications installed in phone memory only if it really is necessary or for speedup purposes. (X-plore, QuickOffice, Widgets)
2. In memory card if not crucial to have on the phone all the time or for the purpose of using large storage space. (ProfiMail, N-gage Games)