Interfaces: Dear R.I.M.

RIM, or Research in Motion is the company that makes your blackberry. Some people don't even know that, but that's due to marketing and brand identity. RIM is king when it comes to email and corporate security.  RIM piggybacks off of the cellular carriers, and maintain their own network. Which is why we have seen a couple official announcements from the CEO in the past year or so due to major outages. With the introduction of the Pearl on T-Mobile, they were able to grasp the "consumer" side of the market. Which means there are going to be a lot more users that are going to use them for more than just their corporate email and making calls. Smartphones are difficult to get use to and learn to use, trust me, I know. So I have a couple suggestions real quick.

1.  Trackballs. You have moved away from them, but this is just a quick note to never use them again.  This isn't just for blackberries, but for any cellphone or mobile devices. Verizon Wireless had to implement replacement trackballs in their stores because they were replacing blackberries so many times due to the trackball not working. People's grimy, oily, dirty hands cause debris to get underneath and just makes it a burden to use sometimes. RIM has implemented trackpads and touch screens going forward it seems.  My opinion is to implement touch screen as often as possible as the primary navigation method. The biggest complaint when moving to touch screen, or choosing the Blackberry Storm was that people weren't able to text and drive as easily. Just sayin...

2.  Emil setup. Yes, you do have it as part of the setup screen when you 1st activate the phone, but don't let user choose to cancel it. When they do, you have them go into "setup" and then "email settings".  If you want to keep email as your advantage and keep the title of top dog, get email settings back to the main screen of icons.  Common sense is not so common when someone is learning how to use a new phone.  Also, your competitors don't require their users to sign into their blackberry accounts to manage them.  Sooooo many people forget their username and password, or think that it's asking for their email and password they are trying to add or re-validate.


Design and interfaces need to be simple, regardless of how advanced the device is your using.