Former Head Of Design Discusses Where Nokia Went Wrong

Adam Greenfield was once the head of design direction for UI over at Nokia. Now he's off on his own, and posting on the Internet about his experiences at Nokia. While Adam had only positive things to say about his co-workers, he slammed Nokia for several major shortcomings. The crux of their problems?"...the company is fundamentally, and has always been, organized to trade in commodities."

In other words, Nokia traditionally deals in end-products. Putting devices together and getting them where they need to be. They fall short when it comes to designing an experience though. Adam seems to feel the engineering teams have too much say in the way users interact with new products and services.

"It's just not particularly wise to allow engineers to make decisions about things like product and service nomenclature, interface typography and the graphic design of icons: they're, I daresay, not even neurocognitively equipped to do so."

The rest of the article is well worth a read, especially for anyone who wants to form a more complete picture of what the upcoming Windows Phone 7 partnership might look like.

[Via SpeedBird]