By admin
16th October 2009.
15:06
Category Archives: interviews
As some of you have highlighted there has been one guy that has been and still is very well represented in the photo streams from Flickr in the left pane of this blog. This guy really seems to put the Satios camera to the test. You find all of his pics at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/virgile-fontaine/
I realized that he is actually a colleague of mine and arranged a small interview with him.
So, I’d like to introduce Mr. Virgile Fontaine!
In short – who are you?
I am Virgile Fontaine. I am 29, married and about to be a father (in 3 months).
I work for Sony Ericsson in France since April 2006.
What do you do at SE?
I am working as Technical Support Manager. It does consist in managing firmware and handsets customization approvals for Orange France, all French MVNOs and French retail market.
What was your first thoughts when you got Satio in your hands?
My 1st thought was completely enthusiastic !
And thought : “excellent, the first Sony Ericsson Symbian S60 handset !”
After Windows Mobile, that’s a new step of Sony Ericsson towards “Open Platforms”. From my point of view, this will help to increase the number of compatible applications.
Symbian S60 has a very good User Interface (fully customizable by the end user).
The Satio handset is a very beautiful product : good general hardware quality, very large and good quality of the display.
Furthermore, this handset looks very classy
I guess you are a quite frequent user of cameras? What’s your regular photo equipment and shooting style?
Yes !
With my phones and personal camera I take 20 to 40 pictures a day : of my wife, the street, luxury cars in the street, animals etc.
And in 3 months, I will take some pictures of my daughter 
What are your thoughts of Satio as a camera?
Satio’s lens has a very good quality. I used and buy all new Sony camera products (in the past, Sony DSC-T100, T200, T500, H50, HX1 and now T900 and Alpha 550) and I think Satio’s camera has the same quality of a real compact camera.
Picture quality is excellent and I regularly print the pictures I shoot. My friends and family usually think that the pictures weren’t shot with a phone, but with a classic camera.
But I would say that its main advantage is that it’s also a phone
What are your thoughts of Satio as a phone/multimedia device?
Very good : the large display allows a comfortable Internet browsing, and to watch videos on YouTube. The speaker quality is very good, same thing for the ear piece speaker also.
The User Interface is very reactive.
What surprised you the most about Satio?
The quality of pictures and videos made by this camera… oups… I mean this phone !
A few weeks ago I posted an interview with my designer-colleague Martin. This posting was also a call for questions from some of you guys. Unfortunately it took a while to get the answers gathered but now finally you’ll find a selection of answers from Martin here.
Sandeep wonders if we could we expect full kinetic scrolling in all the menus in the future?
Martin: From a user experience design perspective we are seeking any ways that make the navigation and daily usage of a device as “human” as possible. We are looking at physical behavior of things in general, kinetic scrolling is one of them. Technology progress is not always on par with the design ideas, but we are getting there…
Lasses question about using the Satio completely without a stylus?
Martin: I use the fingers only. There might be situations where some of us find it more accurate to use the pen. But for me, the time I take to handle a pen is more than the time to hit the right area on the display with your finger again. So I myself go for the finger.
Novica Josifovski on the similarity between Satio and Aino and about widgets in the future firmwares?
Martin: We are aiming at having a signature design on all our devices. We think that the user interface is a signature in itself and when it’s possible we are keeping the consistency in design and interaction. Of course, there are factors that make the interfaces between phones different. It can be as in Aino and Satio’s case the platform, it can also be screen size or simply the target group the device is designed for. When it comes to widgets going forward – I am afraid I cannot comment too much at this point.
Freddy Rivera on which phone Martin uses, what/why is your favorite phone?
Martin: Favorite phone… hmm, tricky. I use as many different phones as I can. Trying to switch between the models to have a better understanding of their capabilities and always chasing the new idea by using existing solutions. But since I do photography a lot, I had a K800 for a long time and then I changed to K810 – loved the industrial design on that one, still do. The best thing about these two, besides the camera and its interface, was the “blog this”-function. And this is actually when I started to blog frequently. I mean, I never seen a solution where you could so easy capture a moment and almost in real time share it with the whole world, still very proud that we designed it and brought it to our users out there. I am a strong believer of the fact that almost all photography is social in nature, you snap a picture to share it, that’s it! Later I used K850 for a very long time. And as a designer working on all Cybershot products that phone was a confirmation of where we wanted to take the camera design and the mobile photography.
But now with Satio available – this will be definitely one of my favorites
As you understand I use the phone as my mobile office and terminal to all info on the run and the touch interface together with the big display caters for my needs the best, but that’s me.
Moshik on tabs?
Martin: Yeah tabs.. you would be surprised to know how divided opinions are when it comes to tabs – did you know that some people do not see them? Some users are used to so much simpler interfaces that they have hard time discovering the function of tabs. So there you go, we are all different - and that is the beauty and the most fun challenge of design! Also, must thank you for all the support – you don’t know how much support means to us! Love you guys!
Christian on charging the phone and when to start using it?
I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to devices as you might understand. I don’t like waiting for the thing to be mine, fully up and running. I’m not an expert on batteries, but I know you should charge it 100% first time, then let it go empty and then charge it fully again – that to “calibrate” the cells – but remember, this is a designer talking battery technology…;)
There were also some other questions that perhaps wasn’t fully intended for Martin, I’ve tried to write some answer to those myself:
Manish on capacitive touch, when is it due for us?
Well not in Satio. Aino however has a capactive touch screen.
Piotr Mazurkiewicz and Novica Josifovski on why there is no equaliser in the generic music player?
Martin didn’t really have input either but as I’ve said earlier I have forwarded your feedback and made sure it’s listened to. Can’t give any promises though.
I never stop being excited about the engagement on the blog, and as one example of that we recently passed 2000 comments!
One of the more frequent commenters, Valinor, posted the 2000th comment and to highlight that I made a quick interview with him.
Valinors real name is Harun and he is from The Netherlands. He is 23 years old and studies Medicine at the University of Amsterdam.
How did you find the blog and what are your thoughts about it?
- I found the blog by using google to search info about the SE Satio. I have some regular sites I visit but there was not much info about the phone so I tried finding more info using Google.
The blog is really good. I like the clean template style, not much stuff that distracts you. Also the fact that you, a sony ericsson insider, answers alot of questions and you do that really fast, made me decide to stay and get hooked to your blog And offcourse I wont forget superman Piotr who helps answering alot of questions, that guys never sleeps 
Do you find the blog useful, in what ways?
- The blog is really good. Like i said before, the fast answering is awesome. Also the fact that there are alot of serious people around makes it more fun. 3rd the fact that the blog is being updated reguraly with info and photos is sweet. You don’t feel left in the dark till the release of the phone, because every day theres another post that helps with the waiting
Another thing I like are the links to the side, that link to other websites and to the 2 testpilot blogs. Theres always stuff to read or visit thanks to that.
What part of the blog could be improved?
- I personally wouldn’t change anything. I really like it as it is. Putting more stuff in would probably make it to busy and I think blogs should be basic without to much stuff on them. But we should probably ask Piotr or Moshik about this haha. They’re like the specialists on this blog 
Last week I got in touch with Martin, one of our designers working on the user interface in Satio. He and his colleagues have created much of all you see in the display on Satio and he also works together with the people designing the hardware of course. I asked him a couple of questions and together we created the text below to start off with. However I know that you’ll have a lot of questions for him so just hit the comments box below and get it started
Martin – who are you?
I love photography, but perhaps even more, I love rock and roll. I have been playing in bands, touring, and releasing records latest 17 years. The dynamics, team work, sense of beauty and the whole experience of composing, performing and enjoying music is probably the ground for my interest in all kinds of designs. Oh, by the way I work as the Creative Producer at Sony Ericssons User Experience Creative Design Center, puh thats a long name for a design center, but I guess it describes pretty well what is is.
What has been your role in the design work with Satio?
I work as a Design Producer specialized in Interface Design, and me and my colleagues have made all the UI design for Satio, but also for Aino and Yari. Even if there is a lead designer we always work as a group since there are many valuable insights and experience to be shared across different models. Especially when we see these three product somewhat as a family with three distinct characters. Beside always seeing to the humanistic approach to what we do we really care for consistent design decisions. Consistency, if correctly used in design results in recognition and ease of use.
How do you interact with those responsible for the hardware design?
Good question. Interface design is about creating an efficient, simple, easy-to-use and beautiful user interface that enhances the overall experience. This experience is, or could be, nothing worth if it doesn’t play along with the lines of the hardware, the functions and the beauty build into the object. We work closely together with colleagues specialized in industrial design, color material and packaging design. All these designs together create a lasting and enjoyable experience. From thinking of getting a new Sony Ericsson device through buying it, unpacking, the firsts start to every day usage and handling – all these steps, and even more in details, are thought of with the user as base, that is what we design – the experience.
From a user perspective the distinction between hardware and software is not always that relevant. We have an approach that we call “human centric design” which means that the interface and the hardware must work in symbiosis. It you take the camera on the Satio as an example, the combination of an active lens cover and a touch interface is a key aspect of the camera capability. It allows the user a quick access to take pictures. The moment is KING.
What has been the most fun working with Satio?
To work with such a screen, a 3.5 inch nHD touchscreen, and in combination with the S60 platform. This provides great opportunities to work on the user interface and the user experience. I believe that not only communication drives entertainment and vice versa, but also actually browsing the phone, flipping between pictures and media files, is entertainment in itself. This is something we have tried to bring with us all along the deign process. Getting “there” should be as fun as being “there”.
We also enjoyed working with this platform giving us designers, throgh the features of touch and good performance, an opportunity to get more of our dreams into the phone.
What has been the most challenging?
The great screen has in fact also been a challenge. The screen capacity provides numerous possibilities and opportunities and it is important to focus on the right things and leverage on this. It is not about putting in all that is possible, it is a about the right focus and making the right choices and how different features interacts. This is a tricky and exiting job, you must understand and know the primary target group very well. We know that there will always be users that wish a slightly different functions or designs in the phone, and they are always right, from their perspective. But to reach out to the primary target group we must be focused, knowledgeable of the groups needs and determent in our designs.
From where did you get inspiration in the design work with Satio?
From media, music and entertainment consumption in general. Using on the phone should be a media experience in itself, like watching a movie on the cinema. You should not think that you are actually browsing on a mobile phone. And here Sony Ericsson’s specific media interface and the classic media bar is key to the experience.
I am an keen photographer my self, I have worked as a photographer freelancing during a short period of time, today I focus my creativity in my work with Sony Ericsson devices as a designer, but I do care a lot of photography. The latest engagement is as one of the judges in Sony Ericssons Smile Hunt, take a look and feel free to contribute with your pix!http://www.sonyericsson.com/smileshutter/Flash/main.html?cc=gb&lc=en
