multi-media

To use an MP3 player to listen to a song would you rather press 'Play' or 'Ok'?

While many mobile phones tout themselves as MP3 players very few provide an obvious dedicated 'Play' button to listen to music. In a world where convergence is king this damaging oversight seems down right embarrassing. It just doesn't seem easy to listen to music on a mobile phone. If phones are ever to have a hope of one upping traditional MP3 players then it's time to get designers back to the drawing boards.

Designers face a clash between two seemingly conflicting interface design heuristics. An interface should be as simple as possible, of which Google's homepage is the classic example. An interface should always provide controls to do what you want as quickly as possible, everything should be just a click away, you shouldn't have to think about it. Of course current cell phones can do a lot. To have everything close at hand would be impossible without breaking the first heuristic by introducing a huge number of new controls. Balancing the two has become a problem of providing relevant generic controls. We can all recall a horror story of trying to set a car clock.

Mobile phones provide functionality above and beyond what typical MP3 players are expected to do. Though most phones have some space for additional buttons, they can only be added at the risk of overwhelming users. Instead phones tend to err towards simplicity in that they provide a handful of standard controls which cater to the lowest common denominator of functionality. An 'Ok' button is useful in many circumstances so it is provided as a one size fits all method of addressing most actions. MP3 players, cameras and all manners of devices have controls specifically designed to make them easy to use. On an MP3 Player, an 'Ok' button is far less useful than a 'Play' button in this regard. On a MP3 phone how can designers provide controls both for media and call functionality without making the device too complex?

I've written before about my interest in pursuing MMS as a method of rich-media distribution.  Indeed I've directed a lot of my efforts on the Mobile MUSE projects trying to leverage this technology in the projects.

In a previous life, I've spent a lot of time in this area; participating in standards definitions and understanding carrier requirements as well as dealing with the issues of interoperability between 3GPP and 3GPP2 domains.  However, until the mobile MUSE projects, I've had no practical experience with trying to use MMS as a service delivery technology.

Though my titular reference within the MobileMuse.ca project is Research Director, in practice, my role is more of chief technology officer.  But lately my role has been one of major domo lab rat.

People might be expecting insightful guidance on future trends in mobile multi-media from me, but in truth, I've spent the past 7 days in a dark windowless room trying to bastardize together a content delivery system based on MMS.