With the release of the first phone to use Google Inc's Android software platform, the T-Mobile G1 (G1) of HTC Corp, a lot of attention has been paid to the teardown of the underlying phone hardware (related Tech-On! article). However, the phone's hardware can only tell one part of the G1 story. The other part of the story is how well the hardware works in combination with Google's brand-new platform in providing an attractive user experience.
To do this, we turned to EffectiveUI, a developer of mobile and desktop software application interfaces based in the US. To evaluate the G1's user experience, EffectiveUI performed a heuristic evaluation of the device. A heuristic evaluation is where a user interaction expert does a systematic examination of the user interface and, in this case, industrial design of a software application/device. The goal is to determine how well the device fits with accepted usability principles.
Following is EffectiveUI's heuristic evaluation of the G1. In it, we can begin to understand a bit of the challenge HTC had in designing a phone around a new software platform designed to be used across a variety of devices.
Phil Keys, Nikkei Electronics
First impressions can be very difficult to overcome. The immediate experience with the hardware is rather disappointing.
The quality of materials, fit and finish are rather low. Lightly grasping the device causes a number of creaks that seem to emanate from various places. The soft touch plastic on the back of the device is effective and easily grippable, but that is in contrast to the rest of the casing that has a sort of low luster matte finish with a cheap appearance.
Inspecting the device further, you will find five standard hardware buttons and one combo button - trackball. On the left-hand side of the device is a rocker switch for controlling speaker volume and ringer volume. On the right-hand side, you can find a camera function button.
All of these controls, except for the trackball, have very low haptic affordance. The controls on the sides of the device extend about a millimeter above the surface of the phone for a slightly superior feel.
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