Day: March 15, 2010

WinPhone Series UI Design and Interaction Guide

Mobile

Now, this is pretty cool. I’ve been wondering about MS’s Metro UI and the approach they will be taking with it on the mobile side. At the Mix 2010 Conference (going on now), Microsoft has released a ton of information about it, including this nifty design guide (via PocketNow). This will be some great homework towards understanding typography and branding, and a chance to get some new ideas for my own branding efforts. Sweet stuff.

Start With Mobile, Then Move Out

Mobile

I blame this totally on the comment that I made today on Ewan’s piece at Mobile Industry Review. Specifically, the part of my comment that said:

…now when are you going to make that post that says “websites should start with a mobile audience in mind and build their sites like a mobile app, rather than making RSS or a mobile app the next step”

So here’s the thing: we can talk all day about how apps are great or apps suck. But, the point is that mobile is fast-becoming the first window for content and communication engagement for a enough people that maybe we need to think a bit differently towards how we address even the development of websites and other media. If you will, start from the mobile window, and then build around that the user experience for other windows and platforms.

You see, I think that if a web app/site is done properly, then both mobile and non-mobile platforms would have a field day with the interactive possibilities. And add to that, doing an app/service like this makes a lot of sense especially where your users are going to be connected in order to interact with the content anyways.

This is the place where I sit with MMM. I’ve got a redesign that needs to be done, but it needs to be something that promotes this idea that its designed for mobile *first* and then other platforms simply see a screen-appropriate version of the site/content.

Honestly, I don’t even want a website as much as I’d like a widget-like interface to be a connection/search/sharing point for the site and those that contribute to it. In that way, the site become more like an application, and with the ability of mobile devices and the intentions of people that use them, we can start seeing interactions that make mobile applications look like covered wagons.

What I don’t know is exactly what platform to use to get started like this. As soon as I crack this nut, you can best believe that there’s going to be some paradigm-shifting that will be going on.