Introduction to the Symbian Quartz User Interface
by Richard Bloor
At first sight Quartz would not obviously have any relationship with the operating system which powers the Psion range of handhelds or the Ericsson R380. The single click, task orientated interface could easily be the product of an entirely different parent. However below the surface the EPOC operating system is at the heart of both.
When Psion originally developed EPOC for their Series 5 PDAs they had the foresight to split the User Interface from the base layer using a powerful object orientated middleware. This foresight has allowed Symbian to embark on the development of three separate flavours of EPOC targeted at tight product niches. These three products, known as the Design Family Reference Designs or DFRDs, are:
Crystal - for high end data orientated devices with voice capability
Quartz - for devices balancing voice and data
Pearl - voice orientated devices with data capability
Quartz is the first of the DFRDs to be publicly released.
So What Is Quartz?
Quartz is designed to run on devices with a 240×320 color portrait touch screen (physically about 5.5cm×7.3cm) and utilises an up, down, select button cluster (with left and right being optional) and phone answer/hang up buttons.
Day View in Quartz Agenda
The Quartz User Interface employs a list based, paper like metaphor with single click activation. Applications display their data as lists, clicking on items opens their details. If within the details there are items which logically lead to other tasks, for example an e-mail address, a single click opens a new e-mail in the message application. The other important component of the paper metaphor is that when a user switches away from a screen the data is saved.
Parallels could be drawn between the Palm interface and Quartz, but there are significant differences. Firstly Quartz does not have a specific space for handwriting, rather the whole screen is available. Similarly the shortcuts for application activation are displayed on screen, meaning that customisation is done in software not hardware.
Secondly, Quartz is design to have telephony built into the device. A Quartz communicator could be used like a conventional phone, through a headset or Bluetooth headset.
Ericsson Quartz Communicator Prototype
The applications delivered in Quartz are a reduced and reconfigured set of the current R5 applications with one exception. The standard applications include:
Contacts
Agenda (diary) and To do list manager
Jotter, for text and sketched images
Messaging, for e-mail, fax and SMS
Internet and WAP browsers
PC synchroniser
calculator, time information, voice recording and loader (to initiate applications)
In addition, every Quartz device will have a Phone application, this would be supplied by the device manufacturer to interface with their phone hardware.
In addition to the straight forward Quartz interface the functionality of the applications has been adjusted to suit the target user group. As a result To do is now a separate application (in release 5 it was functionality within Agenda). Similarly application functionality has been simplified, for example within Agenda diary items can no longer be marked as tentative and although you can add a memo in an item you can not attach a picture or anything else. Also there is no spreadsheet or document editor (although these could be developed easily by a device manufacturer using the Generic Technology component).
Finally there is no file system or task list visible to the user.
A more detailed examination of the User Interface is made in EPOC Quartz, the user perspective.
Under the Hood
The changes with the release of Quartz are not limited to the User Interface. Quartz runs on Version 6 of EPOC which contains significant improvements and enhancements while largely retaining core compatibility with prior releases. The main changes in V6 are:
full Unicode text handling improving specific locale implementation
improved communications with Bluetooth and WAP1.1
improved Java access to core data with JavaPhone
improvements to application functionality (some of which will only be seen in Crystal, for example multiple worksheets in the spreadsheet application)
framework for inclusion of handwriting recognition
memory/application management to minimise low memory problems
improved connection and synchronisation
security, with digital certificate management and encryption.
A more detailed examination of changes in V6 which effects the developer is undertaken in EPOC Quartz, the developers perspective.
Hardware Developments
At the time of writing, Psion and Motorola have demonstrated a device code named "Odin", which will be manufactured by Motorola but separately marketed. Odin will be a tri-band, GPRS communicator supporting always on connection. It should be capable of displaying full motion MPEG4 video and the demonstration version is reported to perform well with 3D Java animation and graphically rich arcade style games.
Sanyo has already previewed a device in Japan.
Nokia has also demonstrated a device based on Crystal. The 9210 (which is a replacement for their aging 9110) looks like a mobile phone with a standard numeric keypad and screen but then unfolds to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard and 4096 color screen. Full details of the 9210 can be found at Nokia's web site.
The plans of other licences are less clear but Nokia is expected to be the first with a Crystal device (being a replacement for their 9110 machine). Also while this article was being written Kenwood joined current licences, Ericsson, Matsushita (Panasonic), Motorola, Nokia, Philips, Psion Sanyo and Sony, with plans for Quartz communicators in 2002.
It is probably worth noting that none of these devices will run V6. Commercial devices will be running V6.1 which will include GPRS, WAP1.2 and additional Bluetooth functionality.
Next: Symbian Quartz, the user perspective
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