Soon after the original iPhone was announced, everyone and their mama started taking user interface design seriously. Up until that point, UI wasn’t that important for handset makers or, at least, that’s what we thought.
Samsung has long been working on its TouchWIZ UI which is not only running on the company’s Android smartphones, but has also found its way to Tizen devices and some feature phones.
Now LG is following suit having recently announced that the UI G3 owners learned to love is heading to its entire line-up. Yes, this will include an array of low- and mid-range phones.
Personally, I like what LG has managed to accomplish with its UI. Simply put, LG doesn’t try that hard to “hide” the Android core. Their UI is rather simple and, when possible, it improves the experience by hiding those buttons you seldom use.
As part of the new UI initiative, users will get a simplified camera displaying only the most frequently used menus, as well as the super-fast Touch & Shoot feature. Also in the camera department, LG will bring Gesture Shot to all of its future smartphones, making taking selfies simple and fun.
Another UX feature to be standardized is Smart Keyboard, which works like SwiftKey, by tracking and analyzing typing habits and intuitively “knowing” what words the user intended to type.
While that’s all nice, and while we love what LG has managed to accomplish thus far, we can’t help but wonder when we’ll see their first all-metal phone. The fresh UI is cool, but we can perfectly live with default Android experience. Metal phone body, on the other hand, makes for a (more) visible improvement. 😉