Acknowledgments

New technologies leading to third-generation mobiles gradually widen the scope of mobile services and mobility in general. As markets grow they increasingly get segmented, and new opportunities arise with them. Mobile terminals have changed to open platforms for third-party software developers. In the 1990s the people directly involved in designing mobile user interfaces were very few. Now mobile services and downloadable applications start to enable much wider participation in the creation of mobile user experiences. It was time to address the people doing pioneering work in open mobile platforms by leveraging some of the lessons we have learned from designing different mobile UIs during the past decade. We wanted to give context to all the development tools and material we are publishing. This book is for you; let your creativity flow free.

Nokia has been instrumental in creating benchmark mobile user interfaces during 1990s. Summarizing this work and spreading our experiences to a larger audience has, we hope, a potential for contributing to the work of all who attempt to design usable, interesting, and perhaps delightful mobile experiences.

The user interface design culture, which this book describes, first came to life through the influence of a few mobile interaction design pioneers in the company. It rapidly matured as an increasing number of specialists joined the team. These people, who are much too numerous to be listed here, have created the designs and methods described in this book. We want to thank you for everything we have learned and for the enjoyment in work you have given us.

In the beginning of 2001 we asked for contributions to a book on Nokia user interface design and usability from our Nokia colleagues. We received many interesting and personal proposals, many of which we had to reject due to the practical limitations of the book. We want to acknowledge all the contributors who spent time and effort in bringing this story public.

During the process of editing the book Turkka Keinonen moved from the Nokia Research Center to the University of Art and Design Helsinki.

We want to acknowledge the Department of Product and Strategic Design for allowing Turkka to finalize the project. Harri Kiljander became Director of User Interfaces at Nokia Mobile Phones in the beginning of 2003 and Christian has taken on new challenges in Nokia.

In addition, we want to acknowledge Nina Lindholm, the wife of Christian, and Maarit Laanti, the wife of Harri, for their loyal support. We are grateful to Valtteri and Cleo Bade for visualizing the concepts of the book, Tapani Pelttari for his creative use of photography, and Tapio Hedman and Eivor Biese for supporting the book in its early stages.

Finally we want to thank all those Nokia users who have personally provided us with insightful opinions and inspiration.

Christian Lindholm
Turkka Keinonen
Harri Kiljander
Helsinki