Mobile User Experience:Trying Out Opera Mini
While being on vacation in beautiful Toscana, Italy, i’m trying out the Opera Mini browser on my Nokia 6233 cell phone. It is actually possible to use the blog administration software on the browser (log in, navigate, write posts, etc.)
But it sure is not easy! There are lots of issues in the interface that easily leads to catastrophic accidents: For instance, i just lost half an hour worth of typing because i accidentally hit the back button. Normally i get a warning (“Are you sure…”), but apparently that warning does not work on the Opera Mini browser. HTML is tedious: I could use some kind of snippet library with at least p + a tags, and how do i enter a line break? Furthermore, i can see only two lines of text (8-10 words) at any time in the text area where i write this text. Absolutely horrific for reviewing text and really really annoying that there is blank space on the screen for probably six more lines of text!
Opera, Nokia: please team up and fix these issues. I will gladly help if you need more info.
Technorati Tags: opera, opera mini, nokia, wordpress, usability, browser, mobile, user experience, uxp
June 28th, 2007 at 23:35 (GMT-1)
FYI it took me approx. One hour to write this post. Not counting the half hour i lost by accidentally hitting the back button. This is definitely not very productive.
Sure, after nearly two weeks without internet, it’s another story, and i am amazed that i actually have had patience for typing all this…
June 29th, 2007 at 04:42 (GMT-1)
After 2 weeks without internet you can write book online using ANY mobile browser :P
July 1st, 2007 at 11:58 (GMT-1)
In my opinion your criticism is somewhat unwarranted. By writing a blog post using your phone you are basically trying to accomplish something the platform does not afford. The small screen and ~12 key input are limiting factors inherently tied to the device. Would you normally write a >1000 character long text message?
In regard to the missing alert I guess it’s a matter of Opera Mini not supporting Javascript. Desktop browsers with Javascript disabled would exhibit the same unfortunate behavior. Opera might implement a feature which detected extensive user input on a page and displayed a warning if the user tried to leave it without submitting. It would however be pretty far down on my todo list.
While I haven’t tried using a Nokia 6233 the limited size of the input field does sound like a problem. As Java mobile applications such as Opera Mini is dependent on the phone implementation of input handling I doubt there’s anything they can do about it. For your snippet library, consider adding , Jaiku. Leave Opera Mini to what it does well: Browsing and limited input.
July 1st, 2007 at 12:10 (GMT-1)
Tags mangled my post :(. I’ll try again:
In my opinion your criticism is somewhat unwarranted. By writing a blog post using your phone you are basically trying to accomplish something the platform does not afford. The small screen and ~12 key input are limiting factors inherently tied to the device. Would you normally write a >1000 character long text message?
In regard to the missing alert I guess it’s a matter of Opera Mini not supporting Javascript. Desktop browsers with Javascript disabled would exhibit the same unfortunate behavior. Opera might implement a feature which detected extensive user input on a page and displayed a warning if the user tried to leave it without submitting. It would however be pretty far down on my todo list.
While I haven’t tried using a Nokia 6233 the limited size of the input field does sound like a problem. As Java mobile applications such as Opera Mini is dependent on the phone implementation of input handling I doubt there’s anything they can do about it. For your snippet library, consider adding <p>, <a href=" etc. to your T9 dictionary.
The next time you need to scratch your blogging itch on the road consider getting a device with a more extensive keyboard (iPhone, anyone?) or switching to a microblogging platform such as Jaiku. Leave Opera Mini to what it does well: Browsing and limited input.
August 19th, 2008 at 09:46 (GMT-1)
I had terrible expreince with opera, its very slow, hangs whenever it wants and completely makes other applications worthless.