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After hearing that Opera Mini 5 has been released on Android I jumped at the chance to try out a new browser on the Nexus One. I had heard good things about Opera Mini so how does it shape up?

First impressions

My initial first impressions were good. The interface looks slick and the browsing experience seems fast. Menus and features are intuitive and easy to navigate. A notable point is the use of an on-screen menu, giving it an iPhone feel rather than utilising the menu soft-key at the foot of the Nexus screen to bring up a hidden menu.

The tabbed browsing interface allows users to open, close and switch between tabs

Tabbed browsing

The feature that really stands out for me in this browser is the tabbed browsing. By selecting an option from the on-screen menu a user can bring up a small panel allowing them to both easily open a new tab and to smoothly switch between tabs already open. The interaction and design of this feature is a massive plus. It translates the desktop browser ability into a usable mobile feature.

The speed dial page allows quick access to favourite wesbites

Speed dial

Another useful feature of the desktop browser translated across to mobile is speed dial. A feature useful for quick access to your commonly visited websites. This screen loads when you first start up the browser allowing you to navigate to your favourite site at the poke of a finger.

To draw my conclusions

The browsing experience is quick and feels smooth. Features such as speed dial, Opera link that allows syncing of bookmarks and speed dial between phone and computer, and especially tabbed browsing stand out and offer a great reason to switch to Opera. However it is misssing an important interaction that is offered by the default Andriod browser, pinch to zoom. The double tap utilized by Opera feels slightly awkward and saw me accidentally click buttons and links on more than one occasion. Overall I will still give it a thumbs up and it is great to see viable browser alternatives cropping up on Android.

interface design, user interface Google, Internet, Mobile, Nexus One, usability

iPhone 1, Nexus none

The overall product is thin and sleek.

After 2 months of serious use I have finally given up on the HTC Google partnership that promised so much, but delivered very little.

Compare and contrast

In summary the Nexus is unresponsive, has a pointless set of hardware keys and is far to hobbyist for a serious business user.

I have an original 1st gen iPhone which is far more pleasurable to use than the far more powerful than the Nexus.

For fist time smart phone users, you’ll love the Nexus as it is the first real challenger to the iPhone, but for iPhone users you’ll spend the days wondering why you felt the need for a techno sabbatical.

Hot or not

1.  Touch screen: iPhone perfect - Nexus sluggish
2. Camera: Nexus splendid - iPhone adequate
3. Apps: iPhone appy - Nexus garden shed developers
4. Browsing: Neck and neck on speed and use
5. Email: iPhone almost corporate - Nexus won’t do exchange calendars
6. Speaker phone: iPhone hands free - Nexus 2 cans and a piece of string sound quality
7. Buttons: iPhone one button one purpose - Nexus four always in the way
8. Interface flow: iPhone one way works for all apps - Nexus lucky dip as to how you get back to where you started
9. Multitasking: Nexus does - iPhone does not
10. In summary: iPhone is easily the best

Now I am a fairly business focused user, but I also understand what makes something great, and for the iPhone it’s the quality control that is in place to make sure all apps work like they should.

The quality of both the native interface of the Nexus and the apps that are around are so poorly controlled that you soon find yourself giving up on new ones as all they do is crash your phone or drain your battery.

This “open” standard that so many knocked Apple for controlling will be the single reason that the iPhone app store will make millionaires out of developers and leave the Nexus looking like a niche product for those who want to be different or like to build their own PCs rather than buying a Dell.

It’s not all bad

However, volume often leads to success and I am sure that the rapid spread of Google’s OS will see a more polished version of an iPhone clone coming soon. And I am also sure that the apps will start to get better and those quality developers will be the ones that become know above the rest of the hobby crew.

Mobile, interface design, user interface Google, iphone, Mobile, navigation, Nexus One, usability

Having just been presented with a brand spanking new Google Nexus One I am beginning a series of blogs about all things Nexus One and Andriod.

Unboxing

As a great lover of Apple products I believe the experience starts with the packaging. So what was it like with the Nexus? The whole thing felt very Apple. A clean white box with just a hint of the Google brand colours. The packing felt like it belonged with a high end product and that is exactly what it contained. The only draw back of shipping a phone across for the US is the need to buy an extra charger for the UK sockets.

The Nexus One and it's simple packaging

The device

The Nexus One is a sexy piece of kit. The phone feels solid and screams quality. I was impressed at how thin and streamlined the phone looked. The touchscreen is crisp, sharp and responsive. The interface runs smooth and fast. This is a definite iPhone rival.

The overall product is thin and sleek.

The set-up

Setting up the device was painless. As you would expect it is integrates well with your google accounts and I had my email, twitter, facebook and various other accounts running in no time. Some nice interface touches such as the “See password” function (makes passwords visible not disguised) definetely help when setting up accounts on a touchscreen.

Watch this space

So keep your eyes on this space for more Nexusness and Andriod mania.

Mobile Design, Google, Mobile

It’s news to us and in  a lot of ways it makes a lot of sense. Where simple, single column menus can confuse and usually just replicate what’s going on in the main page, mega menus give the users a fast overview of not just core navigation, but contextual offers and links.

Tesco is a good example of a simple utilization of this, whilst Jacob Neilsen’s blog on Useit.com shows a range of more exciting (can navigation be exciting?) uses of this new approach to drop down navigation.

Drop downs are bad

Typically we would not recommend them and have spent a lot of time reviewing, researching and trying to get them to work for clients who insist on them.

The obvious choice is the make sure the main navigation elements are represented in the main page as this is where the user typically looks and clicks first.

But for many clients, there are too many choices and too many priorities that need to be highlighted and this new approach does allow a much broader view of what’s on offer.

We are currently testing more versions of this approach and looking at how it can be better used by some of our clients, if you want to know more or see our research, please get in touch.

What’s also nice is that you can start to offer contextual navigation and target content within the panel based on behavioural targeting; search term used to get to the site, previous behaviour, currnet customer, etc.

information architecture, interface design, usability design e-commerce, Google, Internet, navigation, usability

Google SEO goes usability crazy

The tactics of SEO and Google are changing fast and it seems that Google is actively measuring usability as a way of ranking websites.

We have been wondering why Google has been using industry sector benchmark sites and it could be that these will be used to build up an ideal “time to complete” scale that is applied across all sites.

The information is no doubt being aggregated through Google search bar along with sites that opt in through their stats and will be used to shape the future of SEO.

It has been reported that site who’s “time on site after search” is improved also see their natural search ranking improving. This basically means you need to get people through to their end goal as effectively as possible, which is not the same as as quickly as possible.

All of this simply equates to a robust approach to user centred design or usability as we know it.

If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch for resources, details and help. Just email chris@cadinteractive.com

usability design, user centred design Google, Search, SEO