[un_designer]

I had started and posted this as a response in another thread, but afterward it became more than a response... so here's a thread. Discuss.

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Both Android and iOS uses a tool-based paradigm as the primary guide to their user experience. That is, it encourages users to get to know all the "tools" aka apps in their "toolbox" aka device and pick one when they need to do anything. It's a way to place a lot of importance and emphasis on the apps, and imo is a very deliberate move to build the market ecosystem.

webOS, on the other hand, despite its name, is really what-do-i-want-to-doOS. It uses an action-based paradigm as the primary guide to the user experience. That is, it encourages users to think about what they want to do, and then just do it aka "just type." The same paradigm explains why the card-multitasking metaphor exists: What do I have going on in my hand? If I want to get rid of it, what's the most natural thing to do?

It's a brilliant move from a UX perspective. Unfortunately in a market dominated by the desire to make money on a gazillion apps, that turned out to be a achilles' heel of a predicament for webOS: it's so good at some things that webOS users don't care about having 15 or 20 of the same apps, but the lack of apps creates a negative perception of and perpetuates the platform's viability (it's not the only cause of course, but one of).

Rightly or wrongly, what we are seeing with the mobile OS growth is a great example of "good enough," where the majority of users aren't aware of the X% better because their Y% is good enough for what they need to do.

Consider for a moment how dumb-phone OSes worked, and even how the original "smart" phone OS (PalmOS), worked. They all use the same tool-based paradigm of the two dominant mobile OSes of today. iOS brought an improvement in consistency and major simplification of a familiar paradigm. Android brought back the power and control that iOS lacked. It's not a coincidence that the Android marketing blitz's main focus is all about power.

That leaves us in an interesting place today: webOS not gaining traction and people entrenched financially within the ecosystem that they've bought into. Both Microsoft's re-adventure into the mobileOS land, and RIM's QNX-based new OS are carrying on the flames of the webOS torch in a way. They both bring really interesting and genuinely innovative ideas, in addition to heavily borrowing from webOS. But just like webOS, they introduce radically better ideas into a world that embraces the good enough familiarity of a incrementally better idea. It's frustrating to see, but not completely unexpected.

[cgk]

Interesting post -

That is, it encourages users to think about what they want to do, and then just do it aka "just type."

I'm curious about what percentage of users are actually using 'just type' - I used it once or twice but generally don't bother. I know on windows 7, that the designers wanted people to move towards using the search box for finding files or starting applications but most people have persisted with their old ways of working.

it's so good at some things that webOS users don't care about having 15 or 20 of the same apps

Is that even really true or just an assumption that we are making? Average app downloads are -95% of the apple marketplace which suggests that people either can't find 'an' app they want or aren't particularly interested in what is in the store. Maybe people on WebOS make more use of the browser simply because they don't have any other option?

[ariker01]

Interesting post -



I'm curious about what percentage of users are actually using 'just type' - I used it once or twice but generally don't bother. I know on windows 7, that the designers wanted people to move towards using the search box for finding files or starting applications but most people have persisted with their old ways of working.



Is that even really true or just an assumption that we are making? Average app downloads are -95% of the apple marketplace which suggests that people either can't find 'an' app they want or aren't particularly interested in what is in the store. Maybe people on WebOS make more use of the browser simply because they don't have any other option?

I use Just Type ALL the time because of "Quick Actions".

[jrstinkfish]

If you pop oen your keyboard on an Android phone (or press the search key) and begin typing, you'll be presented with a list of contacts, apps, matching search terms, etc. that match what you're typing as you are typing. If my WebOS memory serves, this is what Just Type does, right?

[Suntan]

If you pop oen your keyboard on an Android phone (or press the search key) and begin typing, you'll be presented with a list of contacts, apps, matching search terms, etc. that match what you're typing as you are typing. If my WebOS memory serves, this is what Just Type does, right?

Yup. On the android phone I have, you can “just type” on the keyboard and it starts looking up stuff. Apps, contacts, google search, etc. It does everything “just type” does. Except it also allows you to *say* what you want to find. “Just Type” was novel years ago when other OSes didn’t have something like that. Now they do. People around here seem to think webOS is still unique in this regard because HP pushed it as a notable feature so hard while other OSes just added it and left it there for anyone that wants to use it.

Odd that the OP decided to repost elsewhere instead of just discuss this issue in his original post.

Anyway, I reject this notion of an “action based interface.” Sliding open a keyboard and typing out what you want to look for is slower and clunkier than having a well laid out setup for 90% of the things a person does on a phone, imo. I used it very rarely on the pre, and the pre didn’t even have half the organizational options as some of the other OSes do. Just Type was useful for getting to a contact that you don’t call enough to set as a quick-dial. That’s about it. Obviously, these are my opinions, ymmv.

-Suntan

[johnnygewitter]

Years ago, Just Type was called Universal Search and was actually only a search function. Just Type on webOS 2.x also offers, amongst other features, Quick Actions, which is a great feature and is not found on Android or iOS. The search function on these OSs do not do everything JT does. It is unique.
For example, I am a fan of the app Quick Timers. I just type "13" hit the Quick Timers entry and a timer for 13 minutes starts. Fast and easy, I love it