Mobile App and OS UI's: A Lot To Learn

Jakob Nielsen has (as usual) some interesting and provocative insights about usability, in this case the usability of iPhone and other mobile apps:

iPhone Apps Need Low Starting Hurdles (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

Nielsen says

The "master guideline" remains the same as in 1986: don't port a UI from an old interface paradigm to a new one.

Nielsen also points out that "on mobile devices, applications are easier to use than websites". Maybe we should look for ways to app-ize our websites for mobile users, rather than make "mobile-friendly" sites that depend on mobile browsers.

On a related note, Slate's Farhad Manjoo says Google's Android OS has a usability issue: "constant menu hunting".

What's Wrong With Android

Manjoo traces the difference between the iPhone user experience and the Android UX to a difference in philosophy:

...Apple is clearly trying to make a complete break with desktop operating systems... under Android's design philosophy, menus are a natural consequence of complexity... That's a familiar view of computing, one deeply tied to the interface on the standard PC...

So Nielsen would probably echo Manjoo's plea to the Android team: "join the menu-free bandwagon!"

And maybe we should rethink our web apps' UX with a more "mobile" mindset.

[On a side note: According to a correction notice on the Slate page linked above, the screenshots of the iPhone and Android calendars had their labels swapped initially. Somehow I doubt that anyone actually believed that the picture from the Android phone was something that ever appeared on an Apple product. Android has more problems than just menu-itis.]