Posts Tagged ‘User Experience’

BlackBerry 6 Homescreen Screenshots and More Details Revealed

July 28th, 2010 BBerryNews

blackberry 6 universal search

Inside BlackBerry sat down with Joey Benedek, Director of UX Research at RIM. The UX organization is responsible for understanding user needs and desires and translating those into interface designs. Benedek walks us through some of the new features in BlackBerry 6 and confirms a lot of what we’ve seen in leaked videos.

For example, we know that BlackBerry 6 has five separate views that a user can switch between using the Navigation Bar, depending on their preference and the type of information they’re looking for. The five sections that are present on the homescreen include:

  • Frequent
  • Favorites
  • Downloads
  • Media
  • All


blackberry 6 homescreen

By creating these five sections, users have less icons shown at once, making the user experience much more smooth. Another new feature described by Benedek is the new Quick Access Areas of which there are two. The first Quick Access Area is designed so you have fast access to the Connections, Alarm and Options screens. These are things that users want to frequently change or adjust and BlackBerry 6 allows you to do this quickly.

The other quick access area on the Home Screen is designed to enable you to view your most recent messages (such as email, text, BlackBerry Messenger), phone calls, upcoming appointments, Facebook and Twitter notifications simply by tapping the Notification Bar in the middle of the top of the Home Screen. If you click on the Notification Bar, it drops down to show who the notifications are from, along with the first few words from the title. This feature makes it much easier to prioritize which notifications you want to respond to first.

There are a host of other screenshots and details about BlackBerry 6 from Inside BlackBerry so check them out.

© BlackBerry Cool for BlackBerry Cool, 2010



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RIM Updates Locate Service Introducing Geoloaction Using Cell Tower Triangulation To Developers

July 21st, 2010 BBerryNews

Research in Motion has introduced a new feature in its Locate Service offering  cell tower geolocation capability to developers for free.

Users can be indoors with no GPS coverage, but your app will still be able to guide them to restaurants or points of interest (POI) around them. Although the accuracy of the fixes obtained from the Geolocation service may not always be as high as with GPS, it has use cases for apps that require highly accurate GPS fixes as well as apps that do not. Apps that require high accuracy can use this service to quickly show the user an approximate location while it waits for a more accurate location fix using GPS. This can offer a huge user experience improvement. For applications that do not require high accuracy, this service can be leveraged as a simple yet effective mechanism to provide location information.

[Source]

RIM Updates Locate Service Introducing Geoloaction Using Cell Tower Triangulation To Developers is a post from: RIMarkable



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$25,000 BlackBerry Super App Contest

June 6th, 2010 BBerryNews

$25,000 BlackBerry Super App Contest

Have you heard of the 3rd Annual BlackBerry Developer Challenge?  You know, the one where the BlackBerry Partners Fund is putting up over $1.5 million in prizes for the best BlackBerry Super Apps…  Well, if you have a great idea for a BlackBerry Super App but need a little help bringing your vision to reality, you definitely will want to check out bitHeads $25,000 BlackBerry Super App Contest.  All you have to do is submit your idea for a BlackBerry Super App, and, if selected, receive $25,000 in BlackBerry development services from bitHeads and have your BlackBerry Super App entered into the BlackBerry Developer Challenge.

How to enter and WIN!

1.  Dream up a concept for the perfect BlackBerry Super App!

Criteria for a super App, according to BlackBerry includes:

  • Provides a user experience that transforms user behavior
  • An app that people use daily
  • Provides an always-on experience
  • Is proactive, notification-driven
  • Provides information that is contextualized and personalized
  • Seamless experience in or out of cell or wi-fi coverage

For additional details please refer to the Super App Criteria on the BlackBerry Website: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/started/super_apps.jsp

2.   Submit your entry via email at superapp@bitheads.com.

Entries should include:

  • Detailed description of the application you want to have built, the functionality, along with any preliminary GUI designs, etc.
  • Identify the BlackBerry devices (and versions of OS) targeted for the proposed Super App
  • Provide relevant contact information including name, email and phone number
  • If applicable, please provide some brief information about you and/or your company and how you came up with the idea.

Interested parties should got to the dedicated landing Page located at http://www.bitheads.com/superappcontest/

It’s so simple… Dream, write/draw and submit to WIN!

Contest Rules

  • Evaluation and selection of winning application will be based on the application which is felt to best exemplify the features of a Super App for BlackBerry Smartphones
  • The Decision Panel will consist of a senior bitHeads mobile designer, a senior bitHeads mobile development manager and a representative of RIM. The winning entry chosen by the panel will be considered final.
  • Contest schedule: Applications will be accepted until June 30th 2010. The Winner will be notified by July 8th, 2010.
  • Proceeds of the contest ($25,000 Development Credit) are to be applied to the costs of bitHeads developing the application.
  • Application development must commence within 1 month of notification of winning contest

Additional information

Contest winner will own the proprietary rights to the application and may do what they wish once proprietary rights have been transferred. Also, a Non Disclosure Agreement is available to sign, you may find this document on the Contest landing page or here (http://www.bitheads.com/superappcontest/images/NDA.pdf).

$25,000 BlackBerry Super App Contest is a post from: RIMarkable

Related posts:

  1. Is This What A BlackBerry Super App Is Supposed To Look Like?
  2. BlackBerry Super App Webcast For Developers May 18th 2:00-3:30 PM EST
  3. BlackBerry Partner’s Fund Launches 3rd Annual BlackBerry “Super Apps” Developer Challenge
  4. Mike Lazaridis Introduces BlackBerry Super Apps



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Pictures and Video of the BlackBerry Bold 9800 Slider With OS 6

May 26th, 2010 BBerryNews

The BlackBerry Bold 9800 Slider aka Mr T. aka the BlackBerry Talladega aka Ricky Bobby has shown itself in both picture and video form and it’s looking really nice. So far we’ve seen two devices, the clamshell and the slider, running 6, and they look to be a little more on par with the other consumer devices on the market right now. The slider is a cool form factor, but with both a touchscreen and a trackpad, you have to wonder if there is some redundancy.

In the above video, the user doesn’t touch the trackpad and instead relies on the touchscreen. This makes sense, because OS 6 seems very touchscreen-friendly, but it just makes you wonder what the use case for the trackpad is. It’s also good to see SurePress wasn’t in use here. While SurePress makes sense for typing, it does create for an awkward user experience, and I found it made the Storm2 experience a little buggy. Overall, this device looks like it still needs a little more time in the oven but it’s coming along nicely.

© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2010



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