> Question: Are there no usability experts at the Japanese manufacturers?
> We have a bunch of interaction designers here that could design better
> user experiences in their sleep. Is there something about the Japanese
> engineering culture that keeps interaction designers out of the design
> process?
I don't know these specific phones, but the Japanese market shows a
wide variety of usability experiences...some are great and easy to use
(mostly i-mode phones and especially NEC and Panasonic) and some are the
worsed nightmare (especially J-Phones).
But let me ask the other way round, who designed the usability of the
new GPRS Nokia 6650? Any Japanese usability consultant could design a
better interface in his sleep ;)
Back to the point, I have no idea why phones sport such different
usability models...even from the same manufacturer released at almost
the same time, sometimes the interface is often very different to use
(as in Panasonic 504, 505 series compared to Panasonic FOMA series).
There is so much to improve.
Juergen
--
Juergen Specht, CTO, Nooper.com - Mobile Services Inc., Tokyo, Japan
i-mode & FOMA consulting, development, testing: http://nooper.co.jp
Check Nooper, your little intelligent email buddy: http://nooper.com
Received on Sat Jun 14 14:50:41 2003