Mobile Development News

Forum Nokia has updated their Series 40 usability guide for games to v1.2. In addition to other changes, they've added a "Top Ten" usability guidelines. They elaborate much more on them in the document, but this sumarizes them:

1. Provide a clear menu structure
2. Make simplicity paramount
3. Offer help where it is needed
4. Be consistent on all levels
5. Conserve the users time
6. Use natural controls
7. Provide save and pause
8. Match game world to real world
9. Go easy on the sounds
10. Provide high score as a reward

The PDF can be downloaded from Forum Nokia here.

On the other side of the spectrum, Forum Nokia has published a Series 80 usability guide for enterprise applications. The PDF for this can be downloaded here.

When developing mobile enterprise applications, there are restrictions that need to be accepted, as well as opportunities that should be taken advantage of. However, an excellent concept for a mobile enterprise application does not necessarily guarantee a successful application. Usability is a key issue in success, especially if the application is supposed to be used as a tool in everyday work.

This document also has a top ten list at the end, which is briefly summarized here:

1. Provide a clear navigation model
2. Use familiar language
3. Be consistent in using controls
4. Make information entry easy
5. Provide useful feedback
6. Hide the complexity of connectivity
7. Consider the IT administrator
8. Display information clearly
9. Security
10. Provide Help

For the full documents and more details please download the PDFs from Forum Nokia.