The Symbian Foundation, Nokia’s ambitious open source project designed to give longevity to the Symbian OS, has launched a new blog inviting the ‘community’ to submit their own User Interface mockups.
UI of course is an area where Symbian is perceived to be lagging behind competitors, such as Apple’s iPhone, Android, and the Palm Pre’s Web OS. It’s also something so fundamental to the user experience that it seems odd, even in a small way, to farm this out to the community.
My fear is that, like many an open source project, you could end up with ‘design by committee’.
It’s seems to be the exact opposite approach to that taken by Steve Jobs and Apple, for example. Can you imagine Jobs inviting Apple fan boys for their UI contributions?
Here’s what Scott Weiss, UI Technology Manager at the Symbian Foundation, told IntoMobile earlier this month on the issue of UI design:
It is up to the community to take it forward. I’m here to help guide and support but… my title is not principle designer. I’m not an authoritative figure but I am an influencer and a supporter and a custodian of the User Interface, which is community-owned.
