Quick thoughts on the MIUI Android rom

A new rom has been developed by the chinese. It’s called “Miui” and it’s Android based. Be careful, unless you like 80ies power-ballads, you may want to turn down the volume:

Since I’ve been very harsh to HTC Sense and Android skins in general, I’ve been politely asked my thoughts on this one. And while I’m still preparing a larger rant on the skin situation, I’d like to give a few quick notes on what I think about this particular flavor.

– I love that it’s possible. I love that because of Android being open source, such an OS image can be put together.

miui-lock-screen.png

– I like the lock screen, insofar as you can open the phone, messages or the device in general by swiping three different icons. I’m less thrilled that the direction to swipe/unlock is vertical. Which doesn’t work so well for HTC Sense.

miui-add-to-home.png

– The homescreen / launcher seems as uninventive as every other homescreen out there (save for Windows Phone 7 which looks to bring something new to the table), but it’s a formula that works reasonably well. There’s a customizable dock for those shortcuts you use all the time, and there’s the rest of the screen for littering with various apps you use.

– In the spirit of Samsung TouchWiz (ugh), every icon gets an iOS-like rounded-corner box. Which does bring a grid-like look to the apps, but feels dated. Also, since the icons weren’t designed to be shown in such boxes (unlike iOS icons), I doubt the viability of this framing of all icons.

– Android has numerous ways to quickly toggle GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi and other “quick settings”, and it’s an interesting approach for MIUI to place these in the notification drawer. But like task-killers, some of these features really shouldn’t be “quick toggles”, but rather completely automatic and built in such a way that they don’t kill your battery. Like Android 2.2 killed task killers1, I’m hoping future Android releases will better manage these settings for me.

– The ability to quickly rearrange the sequence of homescreens is nice, if one likes the way Android homescreens work. I’m not convinced. On the one hand, I love the completely sandbox-esque feel of being able to tweak every homescreen and their widget and app layouts. On the other hand, I like iOS completely automatic and fascist homescreen regime wherein the leftmost homescreen is the search screen, and homescreens are simply added to the right when you need them. In the case of iOS, however, the otherwise brilliantly unified “there are no app shortcuts” metaphor lends itself to what I like to call the “stocks-app homescreen syndrome”, which refers to right-most iOS homescreen which is usually the debris garden for unwanted yet un-uninstallable apps.

– The app/widget trash can that has gotten prime real estate right at the top of the screen is rather silly. Sure it makes it easy when you need to move apps from one homescreen to the other, but in the ongoing crusade against the filesystem, the trash can will be first against the wall. And so it’s a UI metaphor that we should start to shy away from, no matter the kooky and fun way we decide to use it. The trash can is broken goods.

– In the folders vs. stacks fight that goes on, I’m actually in the stacks side of the arena, even if I think the stacks implementation of “max. 12 apps per stack” on iOS is dumb. This MIUI implementation of having folders that just look like stacks but behave like folders, is unimpressive.

– Most central in my argument against skins is that there are some aspects that are fair game, and some that you just don’t mess with. With HTC Sense, it’s primarily the bundled apps. Overall, I think it’ll be the same with MIUI, whose contact list is so stupid. How stupid is it? It’s so stupid, it copied Apples patently stupid interface mechanism where if you swipe right on a contact, it reveals a delete button (see the video, 3 minutes in exactly). Which, if it isn’t clear, is such a vicious example of mystery meat navigation that only bad bicyclists can get my blood to boil more.

– So you don’t mess with core apps is my mantra. Browser, calendar, mail, contacts, phone … those are off limits. Do not touch. What’s left in MIUI? Well there’s the lock screen, the homescreen (with custom icons and widgets), the app drawer and the notification drawer. Did you know that all those aspects of the Android interface, can be replaced by Android apps? In fact, MIUI could’ve been simply an Android app instead of a fullblown rom.

Did I mention I love open source? My friendly criticism aside, I love that MIUI exists. I may even try it, and I will no doubt like it more than HTC Sense. But it all boils down to the fact that we’re still dealing with a phone, which needs to be stable, easy to update with security patches. And the core experience — phone, browser, contacts, email — needs to be razor sharp. With that in mind, I think it’s a real pity that MIUI isn’t just an Android Market app that replaced my homescreen, lock screen, app drawer and notification bar. After all, that’s not only entirely possible, but it’s likely I’d pay for it. I could say the same for HTC Sense.

  1. Yes, really! Task killers no longer work in Android 2.2, and you don’t need them either.  ↑

Internet Explorer 9 Beta video leaks, here’s a few thoughts on the revamped UI [Update]

I have a feeling this video somehow doesn’t tell the whole story about the UI (or is fake), but it’s so interesting I’ll give a few comments.

IE9_beta_leak.png
  • The tabs next to the address bar? Sure doesn’t leave a lot of space for tabs. Could it be Microsofts attempt at solving the tab overflow issue? If 10 tabs are open, do three of them show up next to the addressbar, and 7 of them below?
  • The move towards tabs on top has been gaining momentum ever since Chrome appeared out of nowhere1, so I half expected IE to jump on this bandwagon (which is a good idea for a variety of reasons).
  • Perhaps the placement of the back/forward and address bar in the bulk of Windows 7 dictated that they had to stay in place to ensure “consistency”?
  • Maybe combined with a desire to mimic the intense minification of UI that goes on in other browsers at the moment, this pushed Microsoft to place the tabs to the right of the addressbar as a last ditch attempt at saving vertical pixels?
  • On a widescreen device, while not a good idea, this is not terrible. Since http:// is now officially dead, and short URLs are the trend, perhaps a combined IE omnibar doesn’t need the lavish width it enjoys in Google Chrome? Perhaps it scales down to, say, 300 pixels in width at the least, revealing a decent amount of extra tab space?
  • Alex Faaborg from Mozilla explained best why tabs on top is a good idea. But with the emergence of Chrome Web-Apps, which are just around the corner, there’s a new, albeit not super strong, argument for disconnecting the addressbar from the tab, and that is that it’s still, despite web-apps, a place people use to launch new webpages. In the case of the omnibar, it’s also where people start searching. In Chrome Web-Apps (here’s an early look), the omnibar is hidden when you’re inside, say, the Google Maps web-app. How do you launch a new page or search? You have to click “new tab” in order to get the omnibar back. Which isn’t a big problem, but nonetheless one IE9s hypothetical future toolbar configuration could eliminate.

On the whole of it, Internet Explorer 9 is interesting only in an infamous way. At best, IE9 can become so standards compliant that us webdesigners can ignore it and let our code degrade gracefully to work in it. At worst, it adds another browser we have to hack towards. That makes four, with IE6, 7, and 8.

[Update]: It looks like I was right in many of these things.

  1. Yep, I know Opera was first, but Chrome somehow brought it to the masses  ↑

Firefox 4 Mockups, Linux, Windows & Mac (Quick Thoughts)

I’m quickly becoming a fan of Stephen Horlanders design work on Firefox 4:

FX4_windows.png
FX4_mac.png
FX4_linux.png

You may click to embiggen.

Some quick thoughts:

  • We should keep in mind these are mockups. There’s a very good chance not all these three images are updated with all the latest decisions being made at Mozilla. For instance, the “Page” and “Tools” buttons present on the Linux screenshot seem to have taken the back seat to the App button.
  • Which is interesting because it’s one button, something Chrome is also moving towards.
  • The App button isn’t present on the Mac. Perhaps that’s because the File menu is there anyway?
  • The Linux screenshot has an early mockup of the Mozilla identity manager which promises to sign you in to websites for you.
  • It’s both interesting and sad to think how much time was spent making sure Firefox 3 fit each individual platform  in icon style, when clearly the icons are more minimalistic (and therefore automatically cross-platform) today.
  • I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: tabs should be on top. It’ll be interesting to see whether Safari gets with the program, or whether we’ll see iOS  and Android overtake desktops with their new interface paradigm before that happens.
  • The general interface layout of browsers, these days, seems to be very Chrome and Opera 10. Yet this is still visually very much Firefox with its keyhole back/forward and square tabs. Subtle, great design work here.

Despite the great work that’s going on here, I’m really kind of sad that Chrome will most likely remain my main browser come Firefox 4.

Quick Thoughts On Android 2.1 For Motorola Milestone

Yesterday, I managed to manually update my phone to Motorolas Android 2.1 version. Here are some notes on the end result:

  • The Live Wallpapers are useless (and, by the way, doesn’t include the pyramid-like Nexus One wallpaper)
  • There are 5 homescreens by default, but is configurable up to 9
  • The 3D app launcher see on the Nexus One is not included; there’s a plain app-drawer, and home screen indication fades in on slide and is not permanently visible
  • There’s a Facebook app integrated, not that anyone wants to use that anymore
  • The Cooliris-built Picasa-integrated 3D gallery included on the Nexus One is not present in this 2.1
  • Google Earth is not yet available for Motorola Android 2.1, though I believe this is a switch Google has to flip
  • Voice-to-text input everywhere is not present any more than it was before.

Overall, 2.1 feels sligthly snappier than previous versions, but with so much left on the cutting-floor, this is not the droid I was looking for.

A New Ubuntu Interface

Ubuntu is getting a new interface replacing the theme it’s sported across a number of versions now. Some superfast observations:

  • Only a top-bar as opposed to previously, a top and bottom bar.
  • Close buttons on the left! Are they insane?
  • There are still file menus. How 1995.
  • There’s a “Shutdown” button in the top right corner, arguably the best real-estate according to Paul Fitt. Do we really want it to be that easy to shut down?

Quick Thoughts On Windows Phone 7

Windows just announced Windows Phone 7 (previously known as Windows Mobile 7). Here’s a video, and after that, some thoughts on the offering.

Musings:

  • I like how the lock screen is not a slider, but a “cover” you slide upwards.
  • I’m noticing the Internet Explorer icon, and thinking to myself: Why not rebrand Internet Explorer Mobile as simply “Internet” and replace the icon with a globe? After strangle-holding the web for half a decade, IE must surely be a tainted brand. Then I remember that to most people, the E means internet. And then I’m sad.
  • I wonder which version of IE it’s running… 8? No rounded corners or drop shadows then.
  • The Xbox Live integration will appeal to a number of people. Not a bad move.
  • The interface looks kinda nice, and — dare I say it — clean and original compared to both iPhone OS and Android. I’m told this is the Zune look. Which is ironic, because Zune was originally advertised as bidding you “welcome to the social”. Which of course becomes somewhat easier when you can now finally call someone.
  • It looks like the phone hardware demonstrated has three capacitative buttons, which if you read my column on Androids buttons is two more than just right. Back, Windows logo (probably “home” or “start new app”), and long thing with a circle on the end (probably context menu) [Update]: It’s a Bing key. Incidentally, the more generic “Search” key on my Android phone is my least used button. I think I’ve used it twice in my lifetime ownership of the device.
  • The fact that there’s a smiley on the default SMS texting keyboard… I don’t know… should we read anything in to that? For one thing, I’ll bet you it means WinPhone7 doesn’t leverage the power of HTML5 forms.
  • I wonder if WinPhone7 will be Mac compatible. Catering to the 4% (arguably the important percent) is just not the Microsoft way. One decent alternative would be to not need a computer at all to sync… so that all you had to do to grab music, files, calendar notes, email and everything was to sync to the cloud, or your computer via bluetooth using standardized protocols. The video claims you can “skip the wires and sync over Wi-Fi”. Which, if it works on any computer with a shared network drive, gives this phone a fighting chance, demonstrating how iTunes as sync middle-ware is a last-gen concept.
  • One status update in the demo video from “Anne” reads “Having fun playing at the beach with the twins”. Which we’ll let hang there for a moment. European beach?
  • I’m told version 7 has been underway for quite a while, and has involved a complete rewrite of the code base as opposed to continuing work on WinMo 6.5. Starting from scratch is quite often a really good idea, even if risky.
  • It’s got Bing. Of course it does. Will it allow you to switch that search to Google? Or do they simply ask you go through the browser to do that?
  • The “people” section stresses me out. It’s like walking through the halls at iStockPhoto, constantly wincing to avoid the glare from just-bleached teeth.
  • Let me know if you spot a single instance of the WinMo font set in bold. I haven’t spotted it yet — stylish. The whole “looking through a cutout at a canvas” thing also looks really nice. Actually.
  • Why holiday 2010, why not three years ago?

Quick Thoughts On Google In Advertisement

Just last night, Google advertised their core search business on the Superbowl. Prior to this they’ve been advertising the Google Chrome browser. All this is radically different from how Google used to do things, which was to not advertise at all.

Here are a two of the ads, and some quick thoughts on them.

Parisian Love:

Chrome Features:

So what does this mean? Here are thoughts:

  • Google has got a bunch of disposable income
  • Googles move into other businesses than search means they have to advertise
  • Specifically Google Chrome is a “must-succeed” product of Google, core to their future strategies
  • Google is the new Coca Cola, ubiquitous but in constant need of pointing out their existance so as to not be forgotten
  • Marissa Meyer has gotten really in to harp music

Why The Fading Google Homepage Is Really Bad For Usability

Google.com. Everyones favourite webpage, whether they know it or not. Visited by more people per second than Chuck Norris can count (and he’s counted to infinity, twice, so). And now, since recently, “clutter” is hidden altogether until you move the mouse, after which a header and a footer fades in.

Fading out clutter is not the same as uncluttering or even cleaning up a design. If you feel your design has lost its way, you do not fix the problem by “hiding until your mouse moves” that which you think clutters it all up. So not only does the fade effect not clean things up, but it has the following usability problem:

  • Subconsciously, the copyright notice in the footer is an indication that the page is done loading. I’ll bet you many a soccer-mom loads Google these days, waiting, waiting, waiting for it to load. Until they move the mouse: “Ah, it’s finally done loading!”
  • If you intend to hide your topmost links to mail, maps, images and so on, why even keep them there? Removing all those links would go a ways to uncluttering the page. Currently you’re just pissing off people who use them on a daily basis in place of their bookmarks bar.
  • Invoking the fade that “re-clutters” the page happens virtually every time anyone visits your website, if not instantly, then eventually. As such, any uncluttering done is quickly undone as soon as any activity actually happens. Which makes the fade virtually useless.

What happened to you Google? You’ve changed man. You used to be cool.