Tuesday, June 9, 2015

No more empty smartphone screens

Ever since I parted ways with my trusty Nokia 3310, empty standby screens of many smartphones have felt cold, distant and useless in comparison.

Although, various Windows phones, and a handful of Android devices come equipped with features that make their standby screens appear far less dead. After all, credit must be given where credit is due.

No need for power or home key presses, display double taps or other conscious interactions. The moment they're exposed to the world outside users pocket, both the phone and its user are already one step ahead of everyone else. A digital extension of a human intention.


Sailfish OS also has a similar feature in development we call "Sneak Peek". It's not ready yet, but I've been trying it out for almost one year now. Somehow the feature always carried over software upgrades, up until last week at least. I had to re-flash my phone, turning the feature off for good.

The sudden change in device behavior has left me staring at an empty screen more times than I'd like to admit. Looking and feeling like an idiot.

One step too much


Curiously enough, I realized that all those solutions I mentioned earlier, had one important piece missing. They all focused only on what user might want to see, but ignored where that would lead: what would people do next, after already holding the device in their hand, with the display showing relevant information?

Easy. You either want to interact with it, put it back to your pocket, or set aside on a surface near you.

And the problem with everything we have out there today, is that they all just create an additional state between the display being completely off and fully on. A glance or active screen is shown first, before you can see the lock screen. If you desire to interact with device functions below, you have to first go through that extra screen. This throws away part of the potential gained through anticipating user intentions.

To allow user interaction, it would make more sense to automatically show the lock screen, without any added steps. User would see the same information, intereact with lock screen controls, or continue to unlock their device.
Yes, it would requires some adjustments to how the lock screen behaves. It might be something like these wildly conceptual images, that are created to support this post. Take them for their illustrative value.


Moreover, the appearance is secondary in the long run. How it feels in the daily use becomes much more interesting and valuable quality. At first, it might sound strange for the phone to behave like this, but let's look at what would happen if it did.


The first thing you'll notice, you can get to whatever you're doing a bit faster. People use smartphones over 100 times a day, with majority of those instances starting with manually turning on the display. As the manual part is removed, less attention and accuracy is needed.

Second, the amount of user errors would decrease, because nothing was added. Every gesture and functionality works just the same way. It's the same lock screen, nothing more, nothing less. It's just working with you, not against you.

Worried about accidentally unlocking it? Don't be. Every lock screen has a built in protection mechanism to prevent that. Made famous by that "slide to unlock" slider on the first iPhone. We flick or swipe long enough distance to get past it.

Finally, removing your device from your pocket becomes much more friendlier event.


Just pick up the phone from your pocket and place it on a surface near you. Display will light up to greet you. An accelerometer inside the phone can tell whether you're holding it in your hand, or it's resting on a table. By following that information, it's easy to turn off the display sooner to save power.


Naturally, if the phone is on a table, the same sensor can be used to detect user picking up the device. And for cases you don't want to pick it up, you're just a double tap away from whatever you need.

By now, I'm sure some of you've already wondered why not use black background with colored text and icons on top. Well, it works great if there's no display backlight. If there is, too bad. I illustrated the problem below.


Those liquid crystals that are used to affect the light passing through, cannot block all of the backlight, resulting in gray appearance instead of black. This is very visible at night, inside movie theaters, clubs and ancient dungeons.

Using a background image will simply make the issue less apparent (can be turned off for AMOLED devices to save power). Also, a user selected image is much more personal option compared to someone saying it should always be black.


Making smartphones anticipate our needs is not rocket science. Especially when it comes to the lock screens scenario that we manually go through almost 100 times a day anyway. It's much more about seeing past of our past experiences. If you see through them, and get a taste of what things could be, it's going to be difficult to go back anymore.

You'll soon realize how passive most smartphones are. As if they didn't have the information available to anticipate the most basic thing we do. Once again, you've been staring at an empty screen. Looking and feeling like an idiot.

Welcome to the club.
 

Thanks for reading and see you in the next post. In the meantime, agree or disagree, debate or shout. Bring it on and spread the word.
 

15 comments:

  1. Hi Jaakko,

    I can't disagree with this article (yeah, double negation is right there). I still have my old Siemens phone with monochromatic display and readability of "notifications" on it is power feature, what mobile phone market forget.

    I loved Sleeping screen on Symbian and screensaver on MeeGo was one step forward.

    Your concept is perfection :)

    And idea of automatic high contrast mode is... ehm ... "wet dream" of Jolla user =D Sorry, but readability on sunlight is really poor on Jolla - I know, it's caused by colour selection of the ambiance...

    Thank you for article full of inspiration and enjoy your day =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Naecken,

      Yes, it should be helpful regardless of device and display technology, but it's naturally inspired by my journey with Jolla phone.

      There are also other areas where readability can be improved pretty easily thanks to the dynamic silica theming. But that's a story for another time :)

      Thanks for your support and encouraging comments. Let's see what comes next. Take care :)

      Delete
  2. Well, I've written quite long and I think interesting response, but WordPress ate it. Maybe I'll write it again later today.

    Anyway, interesting article, which I don't fully agree with - as often :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know how you feel. This commenting system has eaten several of my thoroughly crafted responses. So each time I need to compose one, I do it in a text editor first, because clearly it's too much for this platform to handle :)

      All comments are welcome. I had really hard time narrowing the post to its current length, so it goes to show how much deeper one can go. I'm hoping you get around to rewrite your response, so we can dive deeper into details. I like details.

      Thanks for reading and commenting. See you soon :)

      Delete
  3. Great post! By the way, would you have came up with these ideas without using a phone not so optional in outdoor use? The final kick being loosing the Sneak Peek for a while. I mean, there seems to be a very bright side in a nasty issue if so. Keep up the journey, your blog is full of light :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Simo,

      Oh, you're too kind as usual :)

      It's hard to know. Our minds work in a strange ways, and sometimes they need a bit of misery and hardship to really go on the fifth gear.

      I'm pretty sure all things have bright sides, they just take more time to become apparent, or the bright part is for someone else, and one has to make due with a lesser hand of cards. But I digress..

      Thanks for your encouraging comment. You know, it's the community that keeps these lights on :)

      Delete
  4. I`m using the "Sneak Peek" glance screen at most to get the current time.
    I like the used black background and reduced backlight level which is not disturbing to me and others around, e.g. in meetings.
    But in sunlight it's too dark.

    So replacing it with context specific lock screen themes using different contrast allows a short look or normal interaction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that's the intention of the concept. To have more reactive lock screen behavior to the environment user is in, when interacting with their phone.

      Still, in most cases, people disturb others by reaching out for their phone. It's not really relevant what the screen looks like. It's mostly the duration that person is not paying attention to the meeting / other people.

      That's why I'm so worried about many interfaces not being properly "designed" for situations they're used. Here's some more thoughs about it: http://jaakkoroppola.blogspot.fi/2015/06/tailoring-graphical-user-interfaces-for.html

      Thanks for commenting and take care :)

      Delete
  5. A really fascinating look at smartphones, Jaako. It will certainly be interesting to see this brought to life. It's the little details that mean a lot, and that will determine the difference in use and lifestyle if dealt with. Who would have thought that the 'glance' screen, which we take for granted, gets in the way of full convenience and engagement with technology? This is an interesting notion to explore, along with the remedies you have proposed.

    Clara Brooks @ Telco World

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Clara,

    Yes, these are interesting times indeed. There are a lot of great solutions hidden in plain sight, if we just allow ourselves the time to see them.

    Getting something like this all the way into production, is easier said than done, just because it defies everything people know about 'glance' functionality today. I hope there's time for it.

    Thanks for reading and dropping a comment. Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think these are the top 10 smart phones. I would like to know more about this thanks for sharing. Regards, tollywood breaking news

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Convenience of Using Web Based Parking Management Software:
    When talking about parking management, most parking managers would say that they have the most complicated task especially when it comes to paper works. This is the main reason why there are many establishment owners who are trying to incorporate the use of the latest technology with their processes and make it possible to make tahe job a lot easier than how it used to. One of the effective solutions that are now used by many establishments with their parking management processes is the web based parking management software.
    The use of this kind of software has improved the way parking managers do their job while it helps to make the processes within the job easier and faster. Given that the software can be accessed online, it already comes with helpful web based tools that would make parking management easier to handle than how it would. There are many people who would think that it may be a complicated transition, but with learning how to make use of the software, they would soon realize how easy it is to handle.
    Advantages of Web Based Parking Management Software over Old Parking Management Services
    When you will try looking through the advantages of the web based software over the old management services for parking, you will find out that there are really many advantages that would make you decide in getting the software.
    Ease of Access
    Provided that you have internet connection, you are sure to have the ease of accessing whatever information that you need since everything can be accessed on the internet no matter what device you use. Browse through the information of every registrant and update the specific details whenever and wherever you want through your mobile device and viola, everything is settled.
    Wide Scope of Management Services
    Aside from collecting information from registrants, the web based parking management software could also help you in getting other jobs done. Like when you need to send updates to all of your registrants. If before you should be preparing the letters weeks before the date they should be receiving the notices, the use of the software will allow you to blast the emails to all of your registrants and make sure that everyone received the emails in a single day.
    Search on Specific Information and Details is Easy
    Since all of the information of your registrants is saved on cloud, you can easily search on the registrant and access their data with ease. You will no longer search through several files or even go through piles of papers just to look for a small detail. This makes it possible for people to save original information as well as the updates whenever their registrants have some changes to do.
    Are you one of those establishment owners wanting to get this web based parking management software, feel free to get to know more about it on WebParkingSoftware.com and also learn how to get the software and use it for the benefit of your establishment’s parking management needs. For more details, feel free to contact www.webparkingsoftware.com

    apartments
    violation management

    ReplyDelete

  9. free parking software
    apartments
    violation management
    Explore the Web Based Softwaare of Web Parking Software:
    For those people who are in search for the best web based software that are creatively developed, designed and intended for solving parking problems, you don’t need to look any further since Web Parking Software is the ideal choice that you should take into account. In addition to this, the company strives hard and work together to make their parking related services quickly accessible from the Internet. Web Parking Software has a professional, dependable and competent management team with in-depth expertise in the field of parking management, business management and IT computer software.
    The well trained and fully skilled engineers of Web Parking Software spent almost two years with their parking management team to create their first parking management and permit system. Apart from this, the company took daily procedures on snail mail, fax, phone and paper for almost a decade and at the same time applied a cloud based internet delivery system to enhance the reliability, organization and method. On the other hand, the web based software of Web Parking Software has an excellent deal of programming complex code and man hours.
    The entire interface was built to look simple and with a few mouse clicks, you will have a full control of your own building. They also include other non parking components that have the ability to facilitate management that include CRM components, email blasts and a lot more. Moreover, Web Parking Software together with their sister company Callbeforetow are part of CBT software that is fully operated by CBT Inc. The company wants to take the dissatisfaction out of parking management for townhouses, condominiums, home owners associations, apartments and other parking areas. This is one of the reasons why Web Parking Software has reinvented how the parking management should be done.
    The web based software of Web Parking Software was built for commercial property, board members, apartment managers, property managers and anyone involved in overseeing a managed parking environment. With the existence and help of Web Parking Software, you can be sure that all your parking problems will be completely solved by simply using the web based parking software of Web Parking Software. The web based parking software of Web Parking Software is a great system that will allow you to have a full control over your buildings whether onsite, by using your phone and even at your office. Most people who already tried and avail the services of Web Parking Software are all astounded and satisfied with the quality of their web based parking software.
    Once you decided to use their service, you are assured that you can able to eliminate about 75 percent of your paper work. Web Parking Software will guarantee their valued clients that they will never be disappointed with their services and most especially their web based parking software. If you want to learn and know more about the web based parking software of Web Parking Software, just feel free to visit their website at http://webparkingsoftware.com and see it for yourself.

    ReplyDelete

  10. This post is absolutely fantastic and Lots of great information. Thank you

    Virginia Beach
    Chesapeake

    ReplyDelete