MOBLIN ZONE

A Moblin netbook isn’t just a small notebook PC. A Moblin MID (Mobile Internet Device) isn’t just a teeny tiny notebook PC. And a compelling Moblin application isn’t a standard desktop/notebook app or a Web application running on a smaller device.

Sure, the hardware is different, with slower processors and smaller screens, but that’s not the real story. People use Moblin netbook/MID devices on the go, and in a unique context that’s not encountered with a typical laptop or even a smartphone. That’s why creating applications that truly fly on a Moblin device means thinking like a mobile user, from everything from connectivity to screen orientation to the use of menus.

In this two-part series, “Think Like a Mobile User,” let’s explore what it means to think like a mobile user, in the specific context of writing software and creating user interfaces for Moblin netbooks and MIDs. We’re not getting into the details of Linux development or diving into APIs; instead, the objective is to put you into the mobile frame of mind. The assumption is that you’re a developer with experience writing desktop or Web applications, and you know what you want to create for Moblin. The question is, how can you make it into a true Moblin application? Let’s answer that question together.

Aware of Attention

Let’s start with the basics. When users work with a typical desktop or Web application, they are tightly focused on what they’re doing. They’re in what you might call “lean forward” mode – they’re sitting forward in their chairs. Their eyes are fixed on the screen, and their hands are on the keyboard and mouse. They’re engaged for many minutes at a time.

Contrast that with, say, a television. Except during exciting moments, users are in “sitting back” mode. They’re multitasking, giving the TV only a small part of their attention; maybe they’re eating, carrying on a conversation, or even working with the TV on. The TV lives in the background, advancing to the foreground of the user’s cerebral cortex for a few moments at a time before fading back again.

When using a Moblin device, the user’s attention is more akin to the TV experience than to the PC experience. Users aren’t focused on their netbook or MID for half an hour at a time. Instead, they’re mentally parachuting in and out, with the device – and your application – flipping repeatedly from the foreground to the background.

What does this mean? You can’t count on keeping the user’s attention. You can’t, for example, put up a brief notice on the screen for five seconds and assume that the user saw it. You can’t time out a “press OK to continue” message. You have to save the user’s work in the background. You also have to assume that the user constantly forgets what he/she was doing – because the last time he/she looked at the screen might have been 15 minutes ago. Thus, the context of your application must be always visibly obvious.

Be Aware of Snacking

A corollary of the leaning forward/leaning back issue is that you should assume that readers aren’t feasting on your application. They’re snacking instead. If you’re writing a game, don’t expect users to go deep into your immersive experience for an hour or two. Instead, they’re going to play your game for five minutes at a time – or maybe 30 seconds. Then they’ll turn their attention to something else… and might not come back for hours. By analogy, a PC game is like a shoot-em-up – and the Moblin game is like doing the crossword puzzle in today’s newspaper.

That’s certainly not the experience that you see on a desktop application, or during a Web application session. But that’s the usage pattern for a netbook, which might be sitting on a kitchen counter, or on a MID, which might get used for a few minutes on the train.

From a design perspective, make it easy for the user to pick up the pieces when he/she comes back to your app. Everything should be right where he/she left it, and the GUI should make it clear what the user was doing… and what he/she should do next. And for heaven’s sake, don’t let them lose the game because the train’s ticket taker came by, or the oven timer went off.

Be Aware of Network/Power Status

While the user’s attention is drifting in and out of your application, there’s a lot that can be going on in the real world. For example, the Moblin device’s battery might have run down. The network connection may have come and gone and come and gone and come and gone again. Some emails might have arrived, or it’s time to check Facebook. With Moblin users, expect their attention to wander. And expect them to never select File -> Save. (In fact, you shouldn’t use menus anyway in a Moblin app – they’re not well suited to the small screen and varying pointing devices, as we’ll see in Part 2.)

It’s your application’s job to handle those situations gracefully and transparently to the user. Be sure that data is cached, and that needed network connections/disconnection can happen without any user interaction required. If the machine goes to sleep (either intentionally when the user closed the screen, or by having the system snooze through disuse), make sure that it wakes up right where the user expected it.

Also make sure that your application is being a good citizen when the user does come back. Don’t spend 20 seconds restoring “application state” by doing a foreground sync with a remote server. When the user does come back for a little snack, make sure the food’s warm and ready.

Next Time: Getting Into the GUI

In Part 2 of this series we’ll get into GUI specifics, like how to handle a Moblin’s landscape display to best advantage, fine-tune animations, embrace sidebars and echew tabs, and more.

Until then, let’s leave with some suggested reading, with two books from Dan Saffer. The first is “Designing Gestural Interfaces: Touchscreens and Interactive Devices”, which will help you shift your mindset from the desktop, with its traditional input devices, to the brave new world of MIDs. The second is “Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices, 2nd Edition”  which will help you envision how applications can leverage the new platforms.

I’d like to thank Nick Richards, an Interaction Designer at Intel, for his assistance with this article series. Check out his presentations from the Intel Developer Forum, “Designing Moblin for Netbooks" and “Designing Moblin for MIDs".

* All names and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Alan Zeichick is principal analyst at Camden Associates, where he advises enterprises about technology challenges, writes for technology print and online publications and speaks at industry events on enterprise IT, networking, security, software engineering and consumer electronics. Meanwhile, as editorial director of BZ Media’s SD Times, Zeichick drives forward the industry newspaper for software development managers.

A former mainframe developer and systems analyst, Zeichick became a technology analyst and journalist in 1984. He has authored more than 3,000 articles, worked with consulting groups, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, IDC and Anderson Consulting, and has spoken at numerous events such as COMDEX, Networld+Interop, Microsoft TechEd, JavaOne and the Software Development Conference.

Read his personal blog at ztrek.blogspot.com, and follow him at twitter.com/zeichick.