|
Newsletters
|
|
|
|
|
Symbian DevZone Developer Profile: DreamSpring
by Richard Bloor, June 02, 2003
Australian developer DreamSpring is creating a range of Life Management
products for Symbian OS smartphones. The first application, DreamScribe, is
interesting for its approach to the user interface, which allows the user to create
PIM entries using the joystick as the main input tool.
- Printer Friendly Version
The dilemma of operating sophisticated software without the rich control methods
available on a PC was one of the central challenges for Nokia’s engineers when
they created Series 60. The limitations of a phone keypad, joystick control and
two menu buttons have been largely overcome in the Series 60 user interface
design, but this has not stopped several developers from exploring ways of
enhancing the user interaction. On such developer is Australia based
DreamSpring (www.dreamspring.com) who has harnessed the joystick to streamline
the entry of data into Calendar, Contacts and To-do with their DreamScribe
application.
DreamScribe sets out to achieve two goals, firstly to minimize the text entry
required to create a PIM record and secondly to tie together Contact and Calendar
or To-do records.
According to Malcolm Lithgow, managing director and chief dreamer at
DreamSpring, the concept of DreamScribe grew out of an idea for a smart jotter
application for the Psion range of palmtops, coupled with hands-on experience of
using the Series 60 PIM applications. “A machine like the Psion 5mx, with its
large keyboard, is a great tool for making notes,” Malcolm said. “In a meeting
someone could type in a note with details of names, phone numbers, times for
future activities and comments. The concept of the smart jotter was to then
process these notes to create contacts or calendar entries automatically.”
However a Series 60 phone is not a good device for quick note taking because of
the relatively slow text entry speed achievable on a phone keypad. After using
Series 60 Malcolm also came to the conclusion that the navigation between
Calendar, Contacts and To-do was cumbersome when the user wanted to deal
with information from each application in a unified way. “I spent some time using
a Nokia 7650 and realized that the joystick was perhaps the richest part of the
Series 60 user interface,” Malcolm said. “So I started to look at ways in which the
concept of smart jotter could be implemented using the joystick to bring together
contact, calendar and task information.” Malcolm initially started with a grid
structure but then hit on the idea of using a hierarchical approach. This
approach presents the user with simple choices selected with the joystick but as
the user navigates a tree of options they access a rich set of options. Interestingly
while DreamSpring were working on DreamScribe Kylon released Joycalc which
employs a similar mechanism to allow joystick based use of calculator
functionality.
Using extreme programming techniques (XP), which Malcolm found particularly
effective in building and refining the hierarchical interface, DreamScribe was
developed over a period of about 4 months.
The following screen shots show how DreamScribe works.
In this example we have already navigated the options hierarchy to select that we
want to create a Calendar meeting. Now moving the joystick up shows a list of
meeting types from which an appropriate one can be selected. Once done we
return to the Meeting screen, now moving the joystick left opens a start details
dialog. At this point the keyboard is required to enter the start time and date. If
necessary we can go onto select the end time, if the default duration is not
acceptable, or set an alarm if one is required. Having completed this process we
could continue to add contacts to the meeting using a similar method of selecting
actions with the joystick.
While DreamScribe enhances the way in which data can be entered into the
Series 60 PIM applications the User Interface is only the front end to what
DreamSpring are planning as an evolving set of Life Management applications for
Symbian OS smartphones.
“The smartphone, because it is something that the owner always has with them,
is the ideal place to bring together and manage life activities,” Malcolm said. “But
the smart thing is what you do with that information. Our vision is a set of
applications which implements features like dynamic rescheduling of
appointments or intelligent reminders based on when it is best to remind the
users about an event. For example, if you had a late afternoon meeting across
town the reminder would automatically be set early to account for travelling
during heavier afternoon traffic.”
Delivering this functionality is a challenge, mainly because, as a small company,
DreamSpring can not simply implement it in one big project. “We are currently
developing a framework for delivering our vision,” Malcolm said. “This will allow
us to release applications progressively, which is important for two reasons,
firstly it ensures us a revenue stream to allow continued development and
secondly it gives us real user feedback which we can use to validate our
approach.”
DreamSpring’s next major project on their roadmap is a PIM Messaging
application for Series 60 that they are developing in conjunction with Nokia Asia-
Pacific’s Early Access program
(http://www.forum.nokia.com/seap/early_access.html). The as yet unbranded
PIM messaging application will allow users to send multiple contacts, or lists of
calendar entries, in a rich text format (such as HTML or WML) that will be
readable on any device with a WAP or web browser. In addition to the readable
copy of the PIM entries the user will also be able to choose to attach the relevant
vCard or vCalendar entries, so the details can be loaded into the recipients
Contacts or Calendar application.
The goals of this project are to overcome the issues caused by incompatibilities in
vCard and vCalendar implementations, as well as allowing the user to send
multiple contacts and calendar entries, currently Series 60 only allows one to be
sent at a time.
Beyond this the next step will probably be the development of a P800 version of
DreamScribe. “UIQ’s pen based interface means that we don’t have the same
challenges with data entry as we did in Series 60,” Malcolm said. “So the focus for
our UIQ product will be much more on the functionality we can add to Calendar,
Contacts and To-do than the data entry mechanism. One of our goal will still be
to ensure that information can be entered with the minimum of navigation and
data entry.”
DreamSpring’s first product was an application called DreamConnect that
enhanced the contact application on Psion Epoc Release 5 machines such as the
Psion 5mx. They sold this application through their own web shop. “The audience
for DreamScribe is very different to DreamConnect,” Malcolm said. “And one of
our biggest challenges has been working out what sales channels to use.” This re-
evaluation lead DreamSpring to start using the Handango web shop for the first
time. Malcolm is also exploring channels through operators and phone
manufacturers. To assist with approaching these organization DreamSpring are
using a service of the Queensland Government through the Information
Industries Bureau (http://www.iib.qld.gov.au) in gathering market research to support
presenting DreamSpring's products. “This sort of assistance is very valuable to us
in term of being able to show that there is a genuine and common need that can
be fulfilled by DreamScribe when we pitch the product to potential resellers,”
Malcolm said.
DreamScribe is a very neat product which significantly enhances the usability of
Series 60 for anyone who makes heavy use of the Calendar, Contacts and To-do
application, indeed it could very well drive many user to make heavier use of
these applications. While the concept for the use of the joystick is not unique the
application is both innovative and well implemented. Another mature aspect of
DreamSpring’s approach is the realization that getting products into major
operator or vendor sales channels requires more than having good software but
also having the supporting market research to show the consumer demand for
the application.
About the WDN Symbian Editor, Richard Bloor:
Richard Bloor is a freelance writer and editor with 18 years experience in the IT industry as a developer, analyst and latterly Project Manager with a particularly focus on software testing. Richard has been involved with the Symbian OS since 1995 and has been writing about it for the last 3 years.
Richard is also an associate with System Architecture consultancy Equinox of Wellington, New Zealand.
Richard can be reached at symbian@wirelessdevnet.com.
Symbian DevZone Home
Nokia DevZone Home
|
|
|
