A Look At S60 Menu Organization – Part I
One of the cool things about what I do is that I get a chance to play with a *ton* of cell phones, from all different manufacturers, but I also get to see a steady stream of S60-powered handsets. Mind you, the majority of them are for review only, and I have to send them back after a certain period. However, one thing that I’ve noticed is that it seems as though, still, each Nokia S60 device that I get has the menus organized in a completely willy-nilly way, and each one is different from the one before.
What makes this worse is that none of them are anywhere close to logical, at least in my eyes. I’ve been organizing my S60 menus the same way since the 6620, with a few changes over the years. I’ve recently had a few discussions about this, so I want to do a three-part look at this out of the box menu organization of S60, and offer some ideas on how to make it better.
Starting out, I want to take a look in my ‘Crap’ folder, which, thanks to S60v3 Feature Pack 1, I’m able to hide within the ‘Tools’ folder, so it’s not mucking up my main menu. The ‘Crap’ folder is simply a place for things which have no place, are redundant, or I simply don’t really need/use.
So what’s in there?
1. 1-touch – Cnce it’s setup, I don’t need it
2. 3-D Tones – Absolutely useless
3. Voice Comm – Don’t use
4. Device Mgr – Never used
5. Settings Wizard – Never used
6. Switch – Used maybe 3 times since I’ve owned S60 phones, though I’ve heard it works great
7. Help – Never used
8. About – Never used
9. Contacts – I keep this as my first app on Active Standby, so it’s redundant to have in the menu
10. Gallery – As much as I hate it, my N95 has a direct button to this, so it’s redundant to have elsewhere
11. Log – The ’send’ button pulls this up, so again, redundant
12. File Manager – I prefer Y-Browser, so I don’t need this in my menus
13. Connection Manager – Never used
14. Calendar – Active Standby has this always up, so it’s redundant
15. Camera – Dedicated camera key makes this redundant on the N95-3
16. Actv. Keys – Never used
17. MyNokia – Apparently isn’t available in the U.S., though it was added to the latest N95-3 firmware. Brilliant.
18. Lifeblog – Haven’t used since I moved to Wordpress
19. Music Store – Again, not available in the U.S., yet added to the latest N95-3 firmware. Why?
Whew! Quite the list, no? As you can see, the list is mostly made up of apps that are either 1. completely unnecessary to consumers (Help, About, etc) or are made redundant by some dedicated key or shortcut. And yet, from the factory, this ‘Crap’ folder doesn’t even exist – these apps are sprinkled throughout my phone willy-nilly.
So, now you’re wondering, if all these apps are in my ‘Crap’ folder, how is everything else organized? I’m glad you asked. Check back tomorrow for Part 2, where I go through my main menu screen, and explain the logic that I use to organize my apps, and why I think all S60 handsets should come with that type of organization.
Great idea.! I too, only recently started to create new folders for apps/games, keeping all my python related apps in one place, and so on.
Look forward to PT2.
Micky
I too completely reorganize my folders into something that I can use.
Just playing devils advocate but Nokia can’t win really. If they set it up one way, you may like it however the next person won’t.
Now that I have hacked my N95, I have complete control over what I install, and how my phone looks from folders to start up music / splash screen.
Sorry Nokia, your security did more harm than good – you attempted to screw the amatuer developers and look where it got you LOL
hey, a mobi site! Great job(not to mention many of the non-mobi friendly mobile companys out there…hehe)
I completely agree with you on this. Ive been repeatin the same pattern of menu organizing since my N80.
Add to the list the N78 with its new FP2, what a joke! (im goin to switch to a N95-1, and yes by choice)
I mean come on, there is a ton of repeat of icons, fast keys, and the addition of fp2 gives more shortcuts, there must be at 3 or 4 different ways to reach the same destination. I feel it became a waste, lost more functions then gained and less customizing. We choose S60 for a reason, or we coulda gone for apple( i leave an study near by apple headquarters so i luv to bash on them, its the lebanese way;) lol)
Oh my god, I use the same folder to hide the things I don’t use. Only mine’s called Bumph. Tools got renamed as phone and has things like Log etc shoved into the folders there, with things I don’t use or can access some other way hidden in Bumph.
I’ve renamed the media folder to Multimedia and moved the gallery, camera, music and video player downloads into there. That has subfolders for games, editing suite (stuff like active note, photocard, mp3 cutter) and office.
My Applications folder is renamed as Updates and has a folder for system. It’s basically my own downloaded Bumph.
I’ve also got a folder for Web as I use a load of different browsers and web applications.
I keep those four folders running down the right side of the menu and have the other eight panels open for quick access to my main applications.
The ’send’ button doesn’t pull up the “whole” log. I can see only Missed calls, Received calls and Dialed numbers, but when I want to see Call Duration and the amount of sent data and all received data, I have to open Log from the main menu.
I’m just saying that I need to see All sent data and All received data.
great article Ricky. I wrote something very similar to this over at n82 blog recently but added another tip that many (including myself) often forget…
the number pad on the phone corresponds to the first 12 menu icons you see on each screen. the icon at top left will be 1 and the icon on the top right will be 3, all the way down to the *, 0, # keys. it really makes it fast when flying through menus, similar to a one touch experience like on the iphone. this tip may not be helpful for n95 owners cuz then you gotta open the slider. its great for my n82 though.
I do agree that there is many redundant applications and icons on the S60 phones.
However I do not quite agree on the following.
(5. Settings Wizard)
11. Log
(13. Connection Manager. Is that the one called USB on N82?)
(16. Actv. Keys)
Settings Wizard is useful if you go on vacation and buys a simcard from that country. Just pop it up and you get all the accesspoints right.
Indeed you can see who called you with the call key, but you won’t be able to see the use of datatraffic. This can be sometimes useful if you don’t have any maximum limit for data costs.
Connection Manager is only useful if you often connect your phone and don’t change your mode for connection.
Active keys is only useful if you have legally bought music from a store. The Telenor Music Store which I tested had a DRM implemented systems whereas you had to have the keys to play.
This displays the keys you’ve got and if for how long they are valid. E.g. number of playbacks left on a particular track.
All active keys for DRM’d songs, videoclips etc. are unfortunately stored in your phone memory on some mysterious place.
I’ve structered my menu with one folder for each category. The ones I use most is placed around on the gridview so I can access those with my keypad. The less I use something in that category the further down it lays.
In additon some of the most used applications are placed on the menu itself.
It would be nice to see the upcoming part 2 to see if I can learn some new tricks.
Can’t agree with you ditching the LifeBlog – it’s not for blogging, get past the name and you will see it’s ultra-useful to consolidate the view on yor phone content – it shows everything in one screen. I set it to the right soft-button, and I lookup messages and pictures there, instead of searching Inbox, Sent Items, and Gallery separately.
[...] already took a look at what’s in my ‘Crap’ folder, the extensive list of apps and icons that I have no use for in my N95-3 and other S60-powered [...]
Open log from the green call button. Use the menu button to switch to another app or just the menu/idle screen then switch right back to the open log app – you should now see that the right soft key has changed from ‘Exit’ to ‘Back’ and will now allow you to access the rest of the functions.
[...] 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 [...]