I make sure to keep an eye on how technology pops up in mainstream non-geek culture because it’s a good way to gauge the techno-cultural zeitgeist and see how technologies are being received by the public at large. As techies, we’re all too happy to be early adopters and are willing to put up with usability problems, annoyances and extra work just to have the latest and greatest gear for its own sake. We have a tendency to forget that many non-techies don’t adopt technologies while they’re still new and need a techie mindset to use; they’ wait until technologies evolve to the point where the benefits outweigh the annoyances.
The current issue of The New Yorker has a Hallowe’en-themed cover that hints at how much smartphones have worked their way into everyday people’s lives:
Here’s a closeup:
(I’ll bet that at least one of you went out Saturday night trick-or-treating and checked your smartphone.)
The practical upshot of all this: the mobile platform is in your future. It’s the one that people take everywhere and it’s growing in power in leaps and bounds the way desktop (and later, laptop) computers did in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
WinMoDevCamp
Speaking of mobile platforms, we’re holding a full-day workshop on Windows Phone development called WinMoDevCamp Toronto next Wednesday, November 11th from noon to 9 p.m. at the Microsoft Mississauga offices (1950 Meadowvale Boulevard). It’s free of charge and your chance to learn how to develop applications for Windows Phone.
In the cases above – and I’m sure you can think of many more – you’re accessing computing resources in a very undesktop-like way: with only one hand, and even then, a limited portion of that hand since most of your fingers are busy holding that phone. You’re likely using only your thumb, as shown below:
There are lots of times when users are stuck in “one-thumb mode”. If you’re building mobile applications, you should keep that in mind and make sure you design your user interfaces accordingly. You might need to consider things like:
The size of touchscreen controls: make them too small and they’re not thumb-friendly.
The number of controls on the screen; the maximum number is dictated by their size.
Navigation in your app. Hierarchical arrangements make sense to developers, but lots of user experience people will tell you that ordinary people don’t get hierarchies.
Which functions will your users use most often? You should make those very easily accessible. Which functions will your users use less often? You might be able to put them on a secondary or tertiary screen.
Can you get information without making the user enter it? For example, can you infer information based on the user’s location, which you can grab from GPS instead of asking for him/her to enter it? Can your application remember your user’s most often-used data?
Can you get other kinds of one-handed input, such as from the camera, accelerometer, magnetometer or other sensors?
That’s a fair bit to think about, and I might have to present some ideas at the upcoming Toronto WinMoDevCamp (and yes, I’ll also blog them).
WinMoDevCamp, the worldwide series of development workshops for Windows-based mobile phones, is coming to Toronto on Wednesday, November 11th! If you want to learn how to develop applications for Windows Phone (the mobile operating system formerly known as Windows Mobile), this full-day workshop will give you the opportunity to get some hands-on training and experience. We’ll have all kinds of people speaking and attending, including:
Mobile developers
Web developers
.NET developers
UI/WX specialists
Software testers
Device manufacturers
Canadian mobile carriers
…all at this workshop, all working – either solo or in teams – on a Windows Phone project. (While you can choose to work solo, you’ll miss out on the brainpower, business and social opportunities that teaming up will provide).
At the event, you will:
Create a new application for the Windows Phone platform and mobile apps that support Windows enterprise applications
Meet and work side-by-side team members from the Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience team
Get help porting your existing iPhone, BlackBerry and Palm Pre apps to the Windows platform
Interact with reps from a number of Canadian mobile carriers, including Bell, Telus, Rogers and WIND
This free event will take place on Wednesday, November 11th at Microsoft Canada’s headquarters in Mississauga (1950 Meadowvale Boulevard, just off Mississauga Road north of the 401) from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.. We’ll serve snacks and dinner, so you won’t starve while you create mobile apps. And yes, I’ll be there, helping out and even writing code.
If you’d like to attend WinMoDevCamp Toronto, all you have to do is register! (And if you need a lift out to Mississauga, drop me a line and I can give you a lift from High Park subway station to Microsoft and back.)
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
On Wednesday, November 11th, we’ll be hosting the Toronto-area WinMoDevCamp at Microsoft Canada’s headquarters! It’ll be the fifth in a series of worldwide “Camp” style workshops focusing on developing applications for Windows Mobile (including the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5).
WinMoDevCamp – short for Windows Mobile Developer Camp – was inspired by events like BarCamp, SuperHappyDevHouse and the original iPhoneDevCamp. It’s a free-of-charge get-together where mobile developers, web developers, .NET developers, UI designers, testers, device manufacturers and Canadian mobile carriers gather, team up and work in ad-hoc mobile development projects for the day.
You’ll get to:
Create new applications for the Windows Mobile Platform
Meet and work side-by-side with people from the Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience team
Migrate existing mobile apps from the iPhone, BlackBerry and Palm Pre to the Windows Mobile platform
Create applications to support Windows Enterprise Applications
Meet with representatives from Canadian mobile phone companies, including Bell, Rogers, Telus and WIND
Test and optimize applications for Windows Mobile 6.5
The event is free-as-in-beer (in other words, it costs nothing to attend), and you’ll be able to sign up to attend soon – watch this space!
I have no idea if WIND Mobile is going to be able to deliver what they promise – a mobile phone company that listens to its customers and provides better service than the sad players in the Canadian mobile phone oligarchy – but they’ve got the right ideas and some rather funny videos that perfectly illustrate what the Canadian mobile customer has to contend with.
What if Toronto’s hot dog vendors had a pricing model like Canadian mobile phone companies? Buying a hot dog would be like this:
Canada is the only country in the world where mobile companies lock you into three-year contracts for mobile service, and this situation is illustrated in the video titled Bike Lock:
I always look at the service packages offered by U.S. mobile companies with envy. Here, the mobile companies love nickel-and-diming you:
WIND is a new entrant into the Canadian mobile phone market and a branch of Globalive Communications, who already have a presence in Canada in the form of Yak Communications, an alternative phone and internet provider. They seem to be taking a very “social media” approach to their marketing, what with the “viral” YouTube videos and a “conversational” website in which readers are encourage to actively participate in online discussions.
They look like an interesting company to watch, and hey, if they can get me a better deal than Rogers, I’ll switch.
Two out of three of this afternoon’s sessions in my track at the TechDays conference – Developing for the Microsoft-Based Platform — were presented by Anthony Vranic, an independent consultant who used to be a Microsoft developer evangelist. His sessions:
Building Modular Applications Using Silverlight and WPF
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This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
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