We often tout the GUI as the most important design feature in software.  It makes sense; it is the most visible part of any software product.  But how important is the interface to the overall success of a product?   I’ve seen excellent products that have absolutely horrible interfaces – and here’s the thing:  they still sell.  An excellent product is one which fills a need, and companies will purchase it if it does the job – pretty or not.  The problem is that those needs change, and when they do it typically has been expensive and cumbersome to adapt a product to fit those changes.

We Humans are capable of learning new interfaces fairly quickly. Consider the slight variations in telephone keypads – how long does it take us to dial an unfamiliar telephone?  How difficult is it to use an unfamiliar automated cash machine?  How quickly do we learn the shortcuts for a new mobile phone?  Certainly these examples cite both excellent universally acceptable design practices but also our ability as humans to adapt and learn new designs easily.  More interesting – I propose it takes the average person less time these days to learn an unfamiliar interface than it did 15 years ago, and I attribute this to the fact that we are presented with new interfaces much more frequently now than we ever have been before.

Case in point:  Video game controllers have come a long way in the past 15 years.  Atari’s now-nostalgic one button joystick interface bears no resemblance to Microsoft’s XBox 360 ergonomic controller with it’s astounding 25 buttons.  Every year another new interface is presented, normally around the time that Santa Claus requires his wish list, and the next plastic race car wheel or wireless band instrument is marketed to eager consumers hungry for a new interface to master.

In business software, the same issues occur.  Interfaces grow and change throughout the system life cycle.  With time, all interfaces must adapt to support increased functionality – or just as likely increased marketability!

This prospect was once expensive and cumbersome for mobile software, because of the complexity and unique resources required to develop for these relatively obscure platforms.  Navara partners use the Navara Design Center to quickly and visually create and modify interfaces for the most popular mobile platforms, so the interface can easily change as the users’ needs change.  So when the next change comes depend on Navara, and let’s solve the interface puzzle together.

Enterprise-Wide Systems

SAP. No

three letters command such a wide range of emotion in the enterprise. Well, in the late 90’s perhaps CRM came close. Large-scale enterprise-wide

systems are incredibly complex. It’s a major investment not only financially but emotionally. For those who have lived through an SAP

implementation, the aftermath is varied:Â Some are delighted, some frustrated, and everyone can agree that it’s a long, long road.

As far as

installations go, SAP may be one of the most costly and complex systems in the world. Multi-year installations are common. SAP is so complex that

many consulting businesses focus exclusively on the system. Teams of dozens of engineers and analysts working around the clock and around the globe

provide customization and integration services while project managers attempt to keep their schedules on track. As with any long-term systems project,

extensions are also common – and therefore frustration and confusion are common as well.

The roller coaster ride of emotions is understandable.Â

SAP often replaces many home-grown systems and affects the very heart of every business that adopts it. Often a complete overhaul of the core systems

that control every unique aspect of a business are collaborated into one system for the whole of the business. Â This big of a change does not come

without stress for those who will use it.

Specialized Solutions

With such a wide range of customizations available, SAP

can be considered a blank canvas. This is fantastic for allowing a customer the ability to design their dream-system ; and a nightmare for those who

could use a little suggestion. Of course, infinite customization takes (infinite) time and money – and when some specific system needs are identified,

it can take an extremely long time and a large amount of resources to implement them. For some businesses, searching for a third-party to provide

additional specialized functionality has proven to be a great decision.

Both the strength and the weakness of wide-scope systems like SAP is in

its flexibility and complexity. Wide-scope systems are so flexible that they introduce a high level of complexity. Enter third-party solutions which

provide very specialized functionality, such as Mobility in a relatively simple product. These solutions focus on a much more narrow set of

functionality and work in conjunction with many different types of large-scale systems such as SAP. Because they are so narrow in focus, these

specialized solutions can provide increased functional and technical capabilities without increased complexity. Over the course of the systems life

cycle, the benefits of using a specialized solution increase even more as change control and enhancements are much easier and quicker to implement than

with a more complex wide-scale system. The flexibility:complexity relationship changes dramatically and the customer gets the best of both worlds – a

capable solution that is quick to implement and change.

Increased Functionality without Complexity

By using third-party

products for specialized functionality, suddenly we don’t need teams of dozens of people. We don’t need years to develop and implement. By

focusing on one specific functional need, specialized third-party solutions eliminate much of the complexity that would be required to configure a

wide-scale system to perform the same tasks. The resources required to use a specialized product are drastically reduced which translates into a

quicker and greater ROI, and much less stress for everyone.

The iPhone for Business

With multiple commercials for the iPhone on TV every single

evening, the most recent of which have been targeting business applications, we have to ask – how ready is the iPhone platform for some serious

enterprise use? As consumers we have been absolutely canvassed with Apple’s marketing for the device. From its simple design and ease of use to

it’s now-lower price point – but is this really the enterprise platform to derail RIM and Microsoft?

Backoffice Integration

In one

recent commercial we see Apple demonstrating a credit card terminal application on the device, so that the user can accept a credit card payment for a

business transaction. What isn’t shown is how that order ties in with the backoffice applications that manage the order. Another segment shows a

shipping label being generated and printed – but how does the application tie in with the inventory management system or the fulfillment system? –

hint: they don’t.

Without that integration, these transactions are “off the grid” for the rest of the enterprise. Can you imagine the chaos

that would result from a field force of sales people taking orders without a systematic way for the orders to be fulfilled? The real challenge of

enterprise software is in the integration, to design a system to interconnect front-office applications in a way that streamlines business processes.

Hardware and Software Limitations for Enterprise

The iPhone’s lack of Bluetooth stack support for data input devices is a serious

handicap for the enterprise marketplace, specifically for asset management implementations. Adding peripheral devices such as bar code scanners, RFID

readers, mag stripe readers, and printers means all data entry must be done on the touchscreen. Without the ability to add integrated or tethered input

devices, we have only one choice – the fat-finger-prone touchscreen.

That said, the touchscreen is incredibly responsive and capable for many

data input tasks.  Even so, let’s not try to do a physical inventory without a bar code scanner, OK? Some of those asset tags might be

accidentally… tarnspoesd.

For other types of field services applications, the consumer-grade device construction renders the iPhone fragile by

industry standards for field services devices. Cracked glass screens are common for the device in the consumer space, and one should expect such a

phenomenon to have increased occurrence in the field services demographic. The iPhone is anything but durable, and screen protectors with silicon

protective cases are all but required to keep the device intact.

That leaves us with the enterprise office environment for a potential market.Â

For applications in an office environment where non-ruggedized hardware is acceptable, and for those without a critical need for peripheral data input

devices, the iPhone is a reasonable contender. Applications such as CRM, Helpdesk, Change control, Sales Force Automation, and perhaps even light-duty

Facilities work flow all seem feasible with the iPhone.

Conclusion

Compared to the established enterprise mobile platforms, Microsoft

Windows Mobile and Research in Motion Blackberry, the iPhone is still the underdog. While gaining considerable traction in the consumer market, the

iPhone platform is still relatively new to the enterprise market. Apple is targeting the enterprise market actively now, and it is clear that they

intend to make the iPhone an enterprise platform in the future. For now, that means somewhat limited availability of mission-critical software – for

example VPN clients. Enterprise email support now opens the doors for other application software to be developed for the platform, but just how long

will it take to cross the chasm? That’s anyone’s guess, and unless your organization has uniquely-fitting requirements AND is in the very small

“early adopters’” category, it may be best to hold off on the platform for now.

After years of resistance, I recently gave in and purchased -gasp-

an iPhone.

“A Breakthrough Internet Device”

Well, not exactly. This slogan is misleading because all of the technology

that the iphone uses is capable elsewhere, and has been for some time. For example, Danger, Inc. produced the T-mobile sidekick 6 years before the

original iPhone was even a conceptual product. The sidekick offered the same ‘real’ web browsing over EDGE, the same radio technology in the first

iPhone model. Another example, the Google maps mobile application is available for free and will run on any device you happen to have laying around.Â

All free. Note: A recent iPhone update gave Google maps increased functionality with streetview, and this too will most likely be added in to the

other GMM clients too eventually.

Messages like “it just works” are misleading – in my experience, apple products have similar hardware problems

to other consumer hardware devices. I take offense to these advertising statements – in that they trick people into thinking that apple created brand

new technologies, when in fact they only created… (read the next heading)…

“A Breakthrough INTERFACE

Device”

Now that’s more like it. Look, you can do everything with a nokia n95 (n96,n97…) that you can do with an iPhone. The

Nokia costs at least twice as much, and let’s face it, it’s more difficult to use just by sheer fact that it is not a touchscreen.

In fact,

most of the functionality available on the iPhone is available in most other smartphone platforms on the market today. It’s the interface that is

revolutionary. I really didn’t think that interface was a big deal to me, being a person of technical nature. But with an iPhone, I can be

looking at traffic maps within 10 seconds and you just can’t do things that quickly on a nokia or a blackberry or a windows mobile app – it takes time

to navigate buttons and menus.

It’s the speed and ease in which you are able to do these things – that’s the differentiator for me.

Convergence

Phone, internet tablet, skype phone, gps, decent or backup camera, gaming platform, video player, mp3 player,

ebook reader. Â One charging cable.

I travel a lot for both pleasure and for work. I travel extremely lightly – I did a small shoulder duffel

bag for 2 weeks in Europe.

Before the iPhone, I carried three devices: (1) a nokia n800 internet tablet for email, browsing, some games, and

skype phone and (2) a samsung blackjack II for phone, other email, backup camera, GPS and (3) an MP3 player – along with the various charges. The

iPhone replaces both devices, naturally.

If I carried a gaming platform like a PSP or Nintendo DS, then the iPhone would replace those as well –

there are thousands of free and low-cost casual games available on the appstore – I’m sure I’ll download dozens the next time I’m waiting at the

gate.

I also carry a canon powershot camera and battery charger – the 2mp cam on the iphone isn’t going to replace that, but it will do in a

pinch. This past September mid-way through a trip to Negril, Jamaica I hopped off a snorkeling boat with my camera in my swim trunks pocket ; I

photographed the remainder of the trip with the 2mp cam on my samsung blackjack II, and those were some of the best pictures I took – they came out

fine. I’m not ready to say I’ll leave the canon camera at home, but for the type of vacation shots that I take a phone cam is typically decent

enough.

We have a stand-alone GPS for roadtrips that announces street names and turn by turns and displays photo icons of upcoming overhead lane

assignment signs for interchanges. Google maps doesn’t do that today, but it could sometime soon and it would replace our GPS if it did.

The

trend across all mobile device platforms has for some time been heading toward convergence, and of course doing all these different things on one device

leads to…. ( read next heading )…

(less than steller) Battery Life

So the battery gets low after a day of heavy use.Â

Let’s talk about that.  My Samsung Blackjack II running Windows Mobile Standard Edition v6 with 3G, GPS, and Bluetooth radios lasted about 2 days

with light use. I could kill the battery talking heavily on it in under a day. The iPhone battery wears down by the end of the day, but I use the

device like crazy. If I use it casually, the battery is barely off full at bedtime – I think that’s true of any user, but you’ll use this thing

more than you’ll use a windows mobile phone or a blackberry, and you’ll use it for different things.

For me, I’m getting more “use-per-charge”

than I was out of my Windows Mobile device; it’s easier to use and therefore I use it more.

iTunes and the AppStore

The

AppStore is, by far, the best part of the iPhone and to me it’s main differentiator from the other platforms. With just a few swipes of your finger,

you have access to thousands (10,000+ and growing) free or low-cost applications. Some of these applications streamline the user experience of

existing services like opentable or amazon. Some are utilitarian, such as a sketchpad or skype phone. The ease with which one may add new

functionality via software apps is amazing and unlike any other platform I have ever seen. This will continue to bring new value to ones’ investment

as new software is developed and released. No hunting for applications, no installation through syncing – literally I can be bored waiting in a line,

decide I want to find a new game to play, and be playing it 30 seconds later. No other platform can beat that.

For a long time I have thought

that the price of music and video on iTunes is a rip off. I don’t purchase music or video online, or I haven’t in the past – that may change now.Â

I enjoy podcasts when I’m traveling, and they’re free. But I’ve been thinking about entertainment value and it’s cost – follow me on this:
It

costs $8 to rent a movie on a plane now – it costs $4 to rent recent releases on iTunes. An entire season of the tv show “24″ costs $40 on iTunes.Â

In both cases, that’s at or under $2 per hour of entertainment. That’s relatively cheap.

You *could* try to find video and music on a peer-

to-peer or via some other leecher tech – but how long will that take? Then how long will it take you to convert that video to an iPhone-compatible

codec?  Before you know it that *free* video you pirated just cost you an hour or more. Is it worth it?
So if I can get the thing I want right

now for a few bucks and be done with it, how much time does that save me? I’m valuing my time a little more than that these days. I know it’s a

granular assessment of time management, and yes I think it is unfair to charge ’so much’ for easily reproducible content – but this is the world we

live in, where new distribution and compensation methods cost real money. And, well – the artists, actors, producers, developers, and big Apple – they

gots to get paid!

That’s pretty cool that the active development of new software and media can and most likely will lead to new functionality

that will make other devices in your kit collection obsolete. In hindsight, that was a no brainer – application distribution convergence with the

handset should have been implimented years ago.

Geeking out

I think the marketing messages from Apple tend to shout “user

friendly” – which translates to “this is a dumbed-down product” to the geek set. That has been my take anyway, but the iPhone is so utilitarian that

the marketing people have not done justice to the technical capabilities the iPhone has already revealed to me.
This morning, within about 5 minutes,

i downloaded a free streaming media app from the appstore and configured it to listen to a radio stream from the ATL police, ATL fire, and Grady EMS (

Atlanta’s level 1 trauma center ). That’s a great example of a very specific technical thing I wanted to do that I could do very easily with public

streaming audio feeds and a free app called FStream from the appstore. Now it’s also a portable radio scanner – or at least it’s delivering radio

streamed from a scanner. Next time I see something happening I can tune in.

Using an app called Fring, the iPhone can connect to my Skype

account and I can make international calls over wifi – it also supports SIP and many other VOIP providers. One download from the appstore and a sign-

in to my Skype account – 3 minutes tops and I have a Skype phone in my pocket all the time now.

A 2 year contract…

You

could purchase a comparable device like the nokia n95 for around $400, or double the cost of the $199 iPhone, and avoid the 2 year commitment to

AT&T. Being well versed in the goings-on of mobile network development, I can advise that there should be no significant mobile network

developments in the US in the next 2 years that would offer the average consumer a ‘better’ network than what AT&T offers today. WiMax does have

potential, but it’s a ways off from being a practical replacement technology to 3G. Pricing for unlimited data plans will most likely drop as

competition increases from similar offerings from T-Mobile and even the CDMA network players. AT&T *should* reflect those drops too, whenever that

happens. In my opinion, the data services are priced too high and eventually they will drop in the free market much like the price drops of early 2000

with broadband internet service. Otherwise, the cost is what it is – and it’s worth it if you use the service.

Background

As a person of technical nature, I admire tools. I am not interested in the sex appeal of tools. I admire an iPhone in a simliar way that I

admire a dremmel rotary tool; that is to say, because of what I can do with it.

Before the 3G iPhone model, the device was cost prohibitive.Â

Now it’s dirt cheap for all that it can do. It eliminates tons of single-purpose devices from my life… and that’s hard to say no to.

The natural human communication method of choice is voice. It’s

efficient, quick, and intuitive – the problem is that computers have had a very tough time understanding natural human speech, until a few years ago

anyway. We’ve all Read the rest of this entry »

This is a piece that I wrote for Support World Magazine, due out in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue – see the request, and

my response below…

 Mobilizing Your Service Desk

When it comes to supporting the IT infrastructure,

IT service personal in the field often have limited or no access to their company’s help desk or CRM applications/systems.  With the onset of mobile

gadgets such as blackberries, cell phones, Read the rest of this entry »

How many ways do we need to let people communicate with us? I

counted up the number of ways people currently have to get in touch with me, and I was shocked. These are just the ways people expect to have instant

communication with me:

• office phone
• mobile phone Read the rest of this entry »

This is an excerpt that I wrote for ebaY on mobile phone

technology practices. Read the original here.Â

Carrier Specific vs. Unlocked Mobile Phones

Many mobile phones (and PDA and smartphone devices) which are for

sale on eBay are phones which were purchased through North American carriers. The largest North American Carriers are Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon,

Sprint Nextel, and Rogers wireless (Canada). In NA, these carriers work with the handset manufacturers to “lock” the devices so that they only work on

each specific carrier network. This practice of restricting the phone provides some security to the carriers, and they sell the phones at a subsidized

price to the consumers figuring they make more money by locking consumers into long service contracts.

Read the rest of this entry »

One problem that I frequently encounter is presenting non-x86

software to a large group. Crowding around a mobile device to examine features and functionality with a group of larger than a few people is

impossible – and if you use online meeting webinar services, you need something to show that little mobile device screen on your x86 monitor. The

solution? Emulators, Simulators, and Display Software. Read the rest of this entry »

Choosing a mobile device these days can be confusing – let’s take

a look at the configuration options available:

Communications Options

• Wireless Communications

• HSDPA and HSCSD are 3G
• GPRS and EDGE : Wireless Wide Area Networks WWANs maintained by major public carriers like Cingular, Sprint

  Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon in the United States. Throughput is variable but I see around 300 KBPS in most markets. Each carrier offers an

  unlimited data plan for approximately $25 USD per month. GPRS is a subset of GSM. EDGE is an enhanced GPRS compression that allows greater bandwidth

  over GSM timeslots.

• WIFI : Wireless Fidelity or Wireless Local Area Networks WLANs known as 802.11a,b,g, and the latest g chips are

  included in many mobile devices. These privately maintained networks have low overhead costs and a range of around 300 meters with throughput up to 54

  MBPS – greater in proprietary manufacturer-introduced multiplexing configurations.

• Bluetooth : Personal Area Networks PANs are designed

  to connect personal devices to one another in a range of 30 meters in enhanced mode.

• Read the rest of this entry »