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.

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