Inside Windows Phone Apps – IMDb

Application:

IMDb

Interviewee:

Andrew Farrell, COO of Matchbox Mobile

About the team:

www.matchboxmobile.com

Can you introduce the app?

Yes. This is the Internet Movie Database application for Windows Phone 7®. Or the IMDb app to you and me. Along with access to all the usual IMDb fare ergo “the world’s largest collection of movie, TV and celebrity information” it uses location-based settings to provide local cinema showtimes. Overall the app is fully featured, makes good use of Metro (it’s following the guidelines closely) and was a showcase app for Windows Phone when it launched and continues to be a very popular choice for users.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m COO of Matchbox Mobile and have been driving successful projects for mobile devices since 1998, from early banking prototypes on PDAs for UK retail banks, through to remote device support systems for US carriers. I have a degree in Mathematics, am PRINCE2-certified project manager and certified Scrum master. I live in Brighton with my family, cats, chef knives and swimming goggles. Oh yes, and have around 300 different makes, models and types of smartphones and PDAs collected from over the years.

What led you into design?

I’m not a designer by trade, but we have made design a fundamental cornerstone of our business and ethos. Our development process is design led and contributes significantly to our success.

What led you to focus on mobile?

I’ve worked in the mobile computing industry my whole career, when I was fresh out of college it was a relatively niche market but I’ve always been excited by the limitless possibilities mobile technology provides people and businesses. Now it’s become a ubiquitous, mainstream, billion dollar industry that is at the heart of everyone’s lives in some form or other, being able to shape that is what drives us.

Do you design for any other platforms? How does the experience with WP7 compare?

Yes, we design and develop for all the major smartphone platforms (and have been doing so for over 12 years). Windows Phone 7 has enabled us to create some of our very best designs.

There are some big differences when designing for mobile, what do you think this application does well?

Absolutely, there are many many differences when designing for mobile compared to other mediums and form factors. Reproducing the web experience would not have suited the IMDb app at all or met their user’s needs. What I like is that they’ve considered what information will be important to their users in a mobile context and how to utilise the capabilities of the device to maximise the user experience. By integrating the location aware ability of the device when a user starts the app the first thing they can see is the films that are showing near you, show times etc. Then you can dig into all the excellent content ratings, reviews, moviemeter etc to decide which movie to go and see.

Design influences and enables behaviour, what do you think this application (or Metro) achieves?

The IMDb is constantly presenting users with a lot of textural information, which of course Metro is perfect for given its origins in visual information. Using the panoramas and the Metro philosophy users can consume information quickly at a glance and then make informed choices on how they wish to spend their leisure time.

Does the design reflect the brand and/ parent site? How does it do this? If not why?

Yes it definitely succeeds here, in fact I’d say the Windows Phone 7 app reflects the brand more strongly than the parent site – the yellow accenting in panorama background image and menu lists is a good way of communicating the brand without grating and is ever present.

If you were to create a new panorama for the same application, what would you do differently and why?

I would be tempted to have the ‘now showing’ data on the panorama rather than requiring an additional screen tap to access that data.

Is having design guidelines a good thing? Are they too restrictive?

I think design guidelines are very important. As designers it’s our job to work within the bounds of the parent platforms design paradigm. An application should feel like an integral part of the phone, a seamless extension of its capabilities. The guidelines are there to safeguard the quality of the user experience that Microsoft created in the first place.

What do you think of the typography, would something else work better in this design?

Typography is ideal because IMDb is a text heavy app, and this is evident if you look at the IMDb app for other platforms.

Do you think there is enough design differentiation between applications?

Users don’t want to relearn behaviours just for one app, so familiarity is important. For any app content is a primary differentiator, how you design your app is the key to its success.