Saif's Everything & Anything

I use several phones and devices all the time. However, when I change from one to another I feel a bit slow until I have “retrained” myself with the interactivity aspect of the device; where to press, how to call .. etc. I have not really paid much attention to this until recently. I was switching between my Nokia E71 and T-Mobile G1 and noticed a major difference between the two. The important difference I saw was the “Home” button. On the G1 and many other new phones, i.e. iPhone, the home button usually takes the user to the home screen, the place where your clock, calender, and to-dos are located. However, on the E71 the Home button actually takes you to the menu. The Blackberry Curve uses a button with small dots (the Blackberry logo) on it to do the same thing the home button on the Nokia E71 does, which is better than using a home icon to get you to the menu. I believe that Nokia’s use of the home button in this instance is less usable than that of the Blackberry approach and others.

Thinking of it further, the buttons on the different devices are meant for different purposes. The home button on the G1 (and similarly the iPhone) is there to get the user to the home screen from anywhere inside the phone’s menu, regardless of how deep the user is. The menu button, on the other hand, is to take the user from the home screen, or anywhere else, to the menu. Buttons on the G1 and Blackberry do what they should without any vagueness. The E71′s home button, however, is a bit more vague. It would allow the user to get to the home screen when within the sub-screens, but when on the home screen it takes the user to the menu screen, which is confusing.

I am attaching photos of the phones mentioned so that you can compare it yourselves.