User Centered

After those last words from Shell (Activity Centered vs. Feature Rich), I got a series of emails from her with more and more information in regards to usability quirks and nuances. It rapidly started turning into a new post -so she decided to put to paper to pen on a comparison of the Treo 650 and 700w. She's passionate about the Treo brand, so I thought we'd give her some room to speak her mind...

by Shell-


I started off with the Treo 650 in mid-2005 and worshipped the phone from the start. When the 700w was released, I was hesitant to use it because I have a bias against all things Windows. However, I decided to give it a shot a few weeks ago. I'll admit, the multimedia capabilities on the 700w are amazing - but I'll save that for later. For now, the following are a few things I've noticed regarding the differences between the Treo 650 and the Treo 700w.

The keypad buttons are actually better on the Treo 700w. They're more squared off, making it easier for those with big thumbs to hit the proper key (which makes male users in particular quite happy). However, two of the previous shortcut buttons on the 650 are now missing from the 700w. It's not as if those buttons were taking up too much space on the 650, so what was the reasoning behind the change? The shortcuts buttons on the 650 made it easier to get to your email, calendar, drop down list, or Today screen with one push. On the 700w, you now have to hit at least two buttons to get to anything besides the phone application. Instead of one shortcut button, all of the 700w's programs are bundled under the nifty little Windows-logo'ed key. Perhaps this was just a ploy to bury the Windows logo even further into our subconscious, but it's a pain when you want to see your email or contacts quickly.


The web browser on the 700w provides, overall, a better web browsing experience. Faster loading, better graphics, a screen that is easy on the eyes. However, the lack of easy-to-navigate screen softkeys on the 700w is irritating (Eddie's note: I tried to get Opera Mini and/or Mobile on her Treo(s) before but can't remember offhand what roadblocks prevented me from being successful). Notice how the 650's browser, Blazer, has back and forward screen softkeys and a Home Page softkey? These are the simplest to recognize - even an internet rookie can figure those ones out. The folder-looking key is for optimizing web pages (okay, that one is not an obvious icon - not to me anyway), the globe spins when pages are being accessed, and the folder-list looking icon is where Favorites are stored. Easy enough. But on the 700w, where are all my easily-accessible shortcuts? The top bar here is dedicated to a phone/mail shortcut which will inform you if you've missed any calls or email while you were browsing the web - even though you will still be notified of any incoming phone calls or emails received while browsing the web. So what is the point of this icon? Moving on: the EV icon will tell you which network you're connected to. You can click on and choose the settings for your network. I consider myself a typical user - I don't get into networks like that. The signal strength bars are fine, I suppose, and lastly there's an icon showing your battery life, an icon that you canNOT click on. (Sidenote: this is one of the most irritating features of the 700w. On the 650, you can tap the battery icon and it will tell you how much life you have left. But on the 700w, tapping the battery does absolutely nothing. I still can't figure out where to find the amount of life left).


The Today screen is basically the home page on the 700w, where you can dial a number, look at your latest email or check your calendar (the settings on the phone pictured have those options removed - I don't like clutter on my main screen). But whether or not you like clutter, this layout isn't too terribly shabby. A quick hit of the Menu button will take you to your Contacts, Dial Pad, Call Log, etc. However, meandering on over to the 650 - I can get to Contacts with one keystroke instead of two. Same with Call Log. And hey, there's a shortcut to my Mom's number right there on the front screen too. While I think each layout has its benefits, I'm sticking with 650 here because it lets me go places with one tap versus two.

And speaking of taps - the 700w can be a pain for navigation. With the 650, I can use my finger to tap the screen for almost every single thing I want. However, on the 700w I find myself trying in vain to use my finger to tap the screen and hitting the wrong link every time - I have to eventually pull out my stylus. What happens when I lose my stylus? Because eventually I will. I think this difficulty in being able to hit the mark with my finger is owed to the size of the marks. In trying to cram so many options into one space, they've made everything so small that you're forced to use the stylus and personally, I hate stylus'.

I like NYTime's David Pogue. He gave a good review of the Fly “pentop computer” that was mostly positive. Basically, this is an interesting pen that can track movement. Of course, (and he mentions this) we've had grown up versions of this (technology) for awhile now, but the Fly is really opening doors that most people never really thought about... drawing your own calculator and then being able to push the buttons?...interesting. Besides all that, this stood out:

Sometimes the Fly speaks your written words perfectly; other times, you wonder if the little camera needs a tiny contact lens. I filled an entire sheet of Fly paper trying to get it to recognize my block-lettered “LUNCH WITH STEVE,” but it never did stop pronouncing the middle word as “W dot.”

and this:

Then there’s the learning problem – not the academics, which have obviously been professionally prepared, but learning the pen itself. Each cartridge and activity seems to require a different approach. For example, after you’ve memorized the 10 different circled-letter codes of the Fly-paper activities – not an especially easy task to begin with – you never use that method again in any other activity.

Making choices from a menu is also clumsy, since you can’t actually see the menu. You have to wait for the pen to read off your choices; when it says the one you want, you draw a check mark on the page. Turns out God invented computer screens for a reason.

These are the kinds of usability issues that I would take into account if I purchased something for me.. fortunately, I'm not the target audience:

Second, you can’t imagine how engaging the Fly is until you witness it in a young person’s hands; my young test Flyers were so hooked, they tolerated an amazing number of frustrating glitches.