[mnc76]

Hi all.

RIM's BB10 OS is almost out and they seemed to have crammed a ton of functionality into it, with more yet to be announced. The peek/flow interaction scheme is great and innovative. However, I feel that RIM/TAT have not made the most aesthetically pleasing UI. To be clear, I am separating BB10's innovative UI functionality from the UI aesthetic.

I can't put my finger on it, but there is just something very displeasing and amatuerish-looking about the whole UI for me The colour scheme, the icon grid, the frames for the active frame content all look really--I hate to say it--bad It looks like engineers designed the UI and not TAT staff Also, something about wallpapers that are not images [edit: of real things] I find extremely 2005 looking. The use of an essentially one-coloured background (especially blue backgrounds) really seems to take away from the visual look of the phone, but this is the type of plain/boring/old background RIM seems to insist on using in its demos.

As objective RIM and BB10 fans (I mean--as objective as we can be 20 days away from launch of the long-awaited BB10 , I was wondering if others agree or if you find the UI beautiful?

At the end of the day, what is "beautiful" and "plain" is entirely subjective of course. These are just my worries as I want people to be wowed or--at the very least--not immediately dismissive of BB10 phones when they see them sitting at their local mobile store. The last thing we want is for all the hard work put into BB10's functionality to be dismissed before people even try it because they think the UI looks plain.

Cheers

[DisturbedRocks31]

It's not ugly for sure. It's no uglier than the android or the iOS UI (I hate the fact that I'm saying that). The fact is we can't say anything until we use it. For about a month.

However, what I didn't like is that the app grid is the same old. We've seen screens full of apps forever. Old BBs, iPhones, Androids all have the same app grid layout. I really wanted to see something unique there but seeing as how that's become a standard, that is not really a complaint from me - rather a wish-list item.

[DarioBB92]

The look of it is awesome and is one of my favourite things about it, I love the black/blue scheme they have with menu interaction and everything else is just gorgeous.
The look of BB UI's are one of my favourite things about BB anyway.

[jesse_h]

It's pretty sexy to me.

[sf49ers]

the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I genuinely loving what I am seeing and is the best on any platform IMO, is there a room for a improvement? sure yes. Given the timelines and the pressure to get BB10 out ASAP there will be some elements that either fall through the cracks or the dev might run out of time to think too much differently, heck that is we have BB11, BB12 ..so on and henceforth for constantly improving, IMO BB10 is not only beautiful but the most intuitive and functional UX on any platform. The subtle touches on BB10 like the transitions, bedside mode, gestures, unlock screen and many more unknowns will be unique to the BB10 and thus taking the UX on mobile platforms to the whole next level.

[Bla1ze]

I find it plain but not in a bad way. I think they could have spiffed it up a bit more given it's TAT but overall, it looks sharp. I do worry about developers not sticking to guidelines though and mucking up the overall look much like how some Android devs don't stick to the guidelines for Holo. Alas, like you say -- it's subjective.

[Masahiro]

I like the look. It's clean, dark, simple and pragmatic. Besides, isn't the whole idea with BlackBerry Flow that you don't have to keep looking through the UI to get to where you need?

[jesse_h]

I find it plain but not in a bad way. I think they could have spiffed it up a bit more given it's TAT but overall, it looks sharp. I do worry about developers not sticking to guidelines though and mucking up the overall look much like how some Android devs don't stick to the guidelines for Holo. Alas, like you say -- it's subjective.

Maybe the final OS has some nice influence from TAT.

[grover5]

I'm not a fan of the icons but I love how the UI functions. The things I don't like are easier to fix or change than the functionality that I'm really impressed with.

[mnc76]

Yeah. I will have to hold full judgment for when I get my hands on the final device of course. I've not had the chance to use any of the dev devices.

Again, I'm most worried about the UI making potential customers dismiss the phone. Personally, I'm in it for the functionality #1, and the UI #2. I'm ok to wait a few iterations of the OS while the UI is refined and tweaked. Launch day jitters

[anon(1152406)]

I've said it before, but the shadow around the icons look awful. Get a nice background pattern, lose the shadows around the icons and were talking.

[TroubleTrouble]

I think everyone should keep in mind that it could still be different when it's actually unveiled. Aren't the sneak peaks we've seen development editions?

[peter9477]

I'd far rather have a very functional and usable OS that has room for cosmetic improvements, than a really pretty one that won't let me get the job done efficiently and easily.

It's also very subjective, as pretty much everyone agrees. I see a few areas I think of as a rough edges, but I honestly don't think that will prevent people from really liking and adopting the platform. You've also got to give a little bit of fodder for the haters, or they just won't know what to do with themselves... ;-)

[mnc76]

I've said it before, but the shadow around the icons look awful. Get a nice background pattern, lose the shadows around the icons and were talking.

^ I agree. Hopefully the icon containers look better in real life than they do in photos/videos. At least they got rid of the original non-translucent square containers.

[dynot]

Again, I'm most worried about the UI making potential customers dismiss the phone. Personally,

This +10000.

I'm actually surprised most folks here think there's nothing wrong with the UI look. What they don't realize is that it projects too much of that "same ol' BB" and they'll just walk away from it. Sure, we diehards know better. But for BB10 to really take off it needs to WOW with a little TAT dazzle, which seems minimal if not non-existant.

Visually its just boring, dull and far from innovating.

[mnc76]

I'd far rather have a very functional and usable OS that has room for cosmetic improvements, than a really pretty one that won't let me get the job done efficiently and easily.

It's also very subjective, as pretty much everyone agrees. I see a few areas I think of as a rough edges, but I honestly don't think that will prevent people from really liking and adopting the platform. You've also got to give a little bit of fodder for the haters, or they just won't know what to do with themselves... ;-)

Yeah, the functionality is the key. People these days do research on phones by reading tech blogs. A stunning UI that lacked functionality would be a field-day from RIM-negative reviews.

I hope to see reviews on the level of "while the UI aesthetic is nothing write home about, BB10 allows you to be more productive than any other mobile OS".

[edit: I *actually* hope to see reviews on the level of "the UI aesthetic simple and elegant and BB10 allows you to be more productive than any other mobile OS"]

[anon(1152406)]

Yeah, the functionality is the key. People these days do research on phones by reading tech blogs. A stunning UI that lacked functionality would be a field-day from RIM-negative reviews.

I hope to see reviews on the level of "while the UI aesthetic is nothing write home about, BB10 allows you to be more productive than any other mobile OS".

The thing is, I think RIM can have both the functionality and the UI aesthetic. I don't think they need to make drastic changes.

[ianchristie1972]

Have to say while somewhat plain the ui looks great, no worse than any of the cluttered android interfaces or the stale iOS. It looks a heck of a lot better than the Windows Phone OS. Yes WP shows how active frames should be used but those boxes yuck.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9700 using Tapatalk

[LazyEvul]

I wasn't particularly happy about it at first, but honestly it's really grown on me. It feels simple but yet elegant in my opinion. Opinions will vary vastly however, as visuals have always been subjective. But I've shown the UI to some of my friends and they seem to really like it.

[mnc76]

The thing is, I think RIM can have both the functionality and the UI aesthetic. I don't think they need to make drastic changes.

+1 (You beat me to my edit

[cfx_will]

yeah I find it kind of ugly too. The spacing between apps makes the interface very barren. if they made the icons smaller, they should bump each row to 5 icons, take off the shadow and unify the icons. The idea that devs can make their icons into squares, rectangles or circles is too much for me. I prefer what Apple did in making the icons tidy and unified. Android app icons are a mess too.

[mnc76]

This +10000.

I'm actually surprised most folks here think there's nothing wrong with the UI look. What they don't realize is that it projects too much of that "same ol' BB" and they'll just walk away from it. Sure, we diehards know better. But for BB10 to really take off it needs to WOW with a little TAT dazzle, which seems minimal if not non-existant.

Visually its just boring, dull and far from innovating.

I was hoping for some more dazzle myself. It takes a while to learn how much functionality the phone has, but it takes a consumer less than 30 seconds to make a decision about its aesthetic :/

[edit: And--unfortunately, as you've alluded to--consumers will infer things about the quality of the phone (justified or not) based solely on the aesthetic. Also, as vain as it is, people want something to cool-looking show off to their friends. The handset build looks very sleek. Its just the UI that may not wow people].

[samab]

But for BB10 to really take off it needs to WOW with a little TAT dazzle, which seems minimal if not non-existant.

Visually its just boring, dull and far from innovating.

You have to separate TAT videos on youtube which is just fluff and can't ever be productized in real life (usability issues), and TAT's actual design wins that brought in the paycheck (i.e. their UI design on the original Android OS). TAT's actual product design wins are very different from those fluff videos.

People will probably miss most of the very subtle 3D effects on the BB10 UI's because it is so fast and fluid (and so understated) --- and that will probably affect initial reviews. But if they spend a few weeks with it, then they will begin to notice --- that there's a 3D effect here and there and there and there...

[shingi_70]

I find it a bit boring. I think a lot of it has too do with the icons and blur background. It reminds of the old school default blackberry set up. Its professional yet boring and not cool and vibrant as say the current android stuff.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[matt4pack]

Some of the icons are quite puzzling and I think the UI needs some more color. Just compare the browser icon on BB10 to the much better one on the Playbook. The BB10 one just looks cheap in comparison.

I understand this is geared more towards the professional but the Playbook UI is perfect to me so I don't know why they aren't using more of it. Hopefully some of the icons aren't final.