Squace blog

The evidence from Squace Beta trials is conclusive; the service is unique and much appreciated by users from all over the world. The way Squace makes Internet available on regular mobile phones is praised by experts and users alike. But all of us in the Squace factory work very hard to improve all aspects of the service: the user interface itself, service speed, messaging and contact book functionalities etc. We would very much like to know what improvements and new functions are most important to you.

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We’ve not yet launched Squace latest release but let’s spend a minute on our design. Then, vote for us in the design competition in London at the MEX strategy forum.

First – it’s a no-brainer; the squares or the grid is the perfect way of arranging a lot of links on a small screen. Especially if you only have a joystick to navigate with (which calculates for more than 3.5 billion mobile handsets and 1.5 Billion TV/set up boxes). But, the grid also solves another important issue – The first time experience; The look and feel of a site or a
service will be the same regardless of screen size or resolution (within limits). The only difference is the number of squares. In technical terms you benefit a reduction in time spent on navigation and data loading – our studies indicates a reduction of clicks up to 85% and almost the same reduction in data (but on the other hand – you’ll start using mobile internet more so in the end you will use/want/need a lot more capacity). And even a small screen GSM phone will be good enough to do a lot of services in.

Second – overall strategy; Only ip and all server based – flat fee will come, operators will eventually provide bits and at the end – Squace could be rendered through the preinstalled web browser (or become the preferred browser). But until then a thin java client is the only solution to make sharing possible from handset to handset.

Third – Designing Squace; It’s a delicate balance between highlighting Squace design and functionality and hold that back to emphasize content providers services and brand. To give you some ideas what we think:

Less icons and symbols
use the content as the interface (or text).
less colors and markers – we have used black and white to minimize the interference with any content. And only – we will be even more stringent with this – Orange as a marker for place and action. Probably we’ll use more shades/tones to softly indicate age or previous clicks in the future (but that is still in the lab)
Administration tools (that includes search) under menus that can be easily reached but not interfere in the actual flow.

And what about the garage – how did we think here? People are using it for different purposes, some have the most important links here others just as a scrapbook of the links of today. The garage will probably end up as a dash board.

Fourth – perhaps the most important innovation – the square Internet convergence. The URL is dead – long live the URL. I think this is perhaps the most important part of gearing up mobile Internet usage; easiness importing relevant links (services, etc) to your mobile context. Some examples;

I’ll buy a flight ticket and in the mail confirmation I’ll also get my mobile link with facts regarding the flight including a link to the airport information so I can follow if the flight is late or not. And why not even tourist information, hotels, exchange rates and a phrase book.
I’m downloading music to my computer and building nice play list. Just click and ad list to the mobile – usable if and when I want it. And shareable to.
If I find something Interesting on the net – use the Firefox plug-in to tag it for Squace – and you got it. Or just import a document, your mail, your pictures and more – soon we’ll drop our open API:s for further development/integration.

If possible we’ll try to write a handbook for mobile interface design – just like the one that Apple did in 1987 – The Apple Human Interface Guidelines. How about that Mitchell Baker and Mozilla Foundation - can we join forces?