LG’s latest smartphone doesn’t just come with amazeballs tech; it also features some neat changes to the interface that make it really slick. So slick that the UX is receiving an award and the likelihood of being seen on more LG products from here on in.
It appears LG’s efforts to make its products just that much easier to use are getting recognition, with a Red Dot award in Communication Design being bestowed on the G3 smartphone, thanks to the interface.
User interface or “UX” as it’s become known (UI if you’re older) is one of those big areas at the moment, as designers and engineers work together to find a way to make technology just that much more compatible with humans, reducing the clutter and complexity seen in products and designing things so that anyone and everyone can use them.
Since the first and second generation of iPhones started catching on in a big way, that marriage of hardware and interface has been something companies have been working towards, and now that the big smartphone and computer manufacturers are there with their specs and performance, it’s that magic key that lets you, me, Mum, Dad, your kids, and everyone else in the world use a product easily that often determines its success.
Apple certainly has it with products running iOS, and it appears LG is getting up there too, noticed even more so with this award. But, the company isn’t going to be stopping there, and will be rolling out these changes to new products, making it so that everyone benefits from this research, not just the people who spend big on a flashy new phone.
“With the basic principles of the G3’s UX features rooted in making complex technologies simple and convenient, our goal was to provide consumers with a user experience they genuinely need and want,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Standardising these features across our entry- and mid-tier mobile products is just a natural extension of our desire to make every LG device feel premium and unique.”
For LG, these interface changes include an easier camera with one touch focus and firing, with the smart keyboard also a big deal, at is analyses the habits of the typist for recommending words while also configurable to fit different hand and finger sizes.
But there’s a catch, as there often is, and while the news is good that LG is making its interface more consistent across its upcoming products, even the cheap ones, anyone with older products won’t be receiving the updates.
That includes the Optimus G2 from late last year, the older G-Pad, and pretty much anyone with an Optimus L or Optimus F smartphone from before the announcement, as far as we can tell, with a representative for LG telling us that “the UX updates will only be available in all products moving forward, from the G3” and that “previous models will not be able to be updated.”
That’s not to say that older LG Optimus smartphones and G-Pad tablets won’t be getting updates at all — it’s possible and likely that they will — but that the updates provided won’t bring that winning interface with them.
