BlackBerry OS 4.6

Usability Analysis

Overview

When the BlackBerry OS 4.6 was in development prior to the release of the BlackBerry Bold, I was tasked to analyze screens and new applications to ensure that they adhered to the guidelines that the User Experience Team was creating. Because RIM was launching a new OS for the BlackBerry Bold, it was important that inconsistencies and usability issues were dealt with prior to the launch.

UI Guidelines

At the same time, I was tasked with creating a set of UI Guidelines for developers and designers to follow in the future when creating new applications. Because design principles and guidelines for the BlackBerry UI hadn'st been documented to that point, it was important for the User Experience Design team to lead this project. This involved mapping all screens of the BlackBerry OS 4.5 and documenting and ranking all usability issues and bugs in order of severity. When writing the guidelines with another User Experience Design Associate, an Interaction Designer and I included a best practices and a do'ss and don'sts section for common mistakes. After we had created the guidelines, a team of writers completed the project and published a set of internal guidelines and another set of UI guidelines for public use.

© Christine Poh, 2011