Design of Mobile Phone Interfaces

Google has recently launched a new version of its operating system, Android 4.0, or otherwise called Ice Cream Sandwich. Google had announced that this was one of the biggest overhauls of the operating systems since it unleashed the Android project three years ago. This new version is an extension to what users love most about Android:  Its easy multi tasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets and deep interactivity. And now, it has introduced powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.

Let us look at how this new version is aimed at giving users a more intuitive interface

1. Intuitive Touch UI

Firstly, it has replaced its physical buttons with virtual buttons in the UI itself and the three softkeys include Home, Back and Recent apps. In this way, users are provided with an option of multitasking using the Recent apps key, to allow them to see the recently opened apps and this feature is preferred by many users.

Another new feature that has been introduced in this version is the swipe sideways facility. This is used to shut down an application by simply swiping our finger sideways, which helps save battery life by preventing the application from running in the background. It is also aimed at reducing effort, when compared to close the application by navigating through Settings -> Applications ->Running Services to stop a particular application.


Google is trying its best to give its users by putting a link to the Market at the top right hand corner of the menu screen, which is useful for users as they can update their app list easily whenever needed.

2. Re-sizable Widgets

The home screens in the new Android 4.0 are designed in a way that users can easily customize their content. Interactive widgets have been designed, which let users access content directly without having to launch apps. And it has also made these widgets resizable so that users can expand or shrink them. In this way, we can say that users are able to prioritize their widgets based on their priorities or preferences. Widgets are extremely useful since they allow we are able to see the content without having to select that particular application, hence saving time and effort.  Another change that Google has brought to these widgets is that users can now looks at them on the menu screen itself. In this way, it helps them to decide whether the associated widgets of newly downloaded apps should be popped onto the home screen or not.

3. Lock Screen Actions

The lock screens in this new Android version allow users to do more without unlocking their phone. Sometimes, we have to agree that unlocking the phone for every small thing is rather annoying. So, to make it easier for users like us, Google has put much thought into designing this new feature which allows users to perform actions right from the lock screen itself, without the trouble of having to unlock.  From the lock screen, users are given the facility to directly jump to the camera, or pull down the notifications window to check for updates or messages and even manage music tracks while listening to music, without having to unlock the screen at all.

Also, a new way of unlocking the phone has been implemented in this new version. The phone can be unlocked using our face rather than typing in a password or drawing a pattern, which might be slightly painful from the users’ point of view. Though this feature is still not perfect, it does have a potential to attract more users.

4. Improved text input and spell-checking figure

The keyboard in Android 4.0 has undergone many improvements to allow faster and more accurate user input. Word suggestions have been simplified to showing only three words at a time and error corrections have also improved by adding a new set of default dictionaries, with more accurate heuristics for handling exceptions such as double typed characters, skipped letters and omitted spaces as well.  And to fix misspelled words with more ease, a spell checker that locates and underlines errors and suggests replacement words has been included. So, with just one tap, users can choose from the suggestions, delete the word or even add it to the dictionary. 

5. New Camera facilities

The camera application has also been improved to fit the needs of the users and making it easier to capture their special moments of life. It has included a number of built-in photo editing features so that users can directly edit pictures on their phone. These improvements include red-eye reduction, cropping and straightening, and filters that add Instagram-like effects to the photos. The camera also has the single motion panoramic mode for capturing large scenes, allowing users to take panoramic shots quickly and easily. Also, users can easily share their photos with their friends and families with just a tap away.

Designing the mobile interface is indeed challenging to cater to the different needs of the users depending on their age groups and many mobile operating systems such as Android, Apple’s iOS, Symbian, Blackberry OS, Windows, etc are all trying their best to make their interfaces as intuitive as possible for their users. Developers are trying to design interfaces such that common actions are more visible and allow the users to navigate using simple gestures.  Also, many new features are being introduced everyday and they are aimed at making interactions of users more engaging and interesting. 


Other features of Android 4.0 can be found at this website:
http://www.android.com/about/ice-cream-sandwich/