What you didn’t know about KaiOS browser
By Aaron Sung, UX Designer at KaiOS
On a smartphone, we can search for information, stream media, connect with friends, and make purchases. However, not everyone can afford a smartphone. That’s how cheaper devices that allow people to connect to the internet — known as smart features phones — came about. To make browsing the internet easy on smart feature phones, designers must be deliberate in the design of functions and operations. Here are some key elements to keep in mind based on my experience designing for KaiOS-enabled phones.
1. Three Major Features in Home Page
There are three prominent options on the KaiOS browser home page: Search, Top sites, and History. In Search, users can search keywords or enter URLs. In Top sites, they can quickly select commonly used websites. In History, they can see their browsing history sorted by time. These features help the user quickly navigate to their destination even though they use a keypad to control the browser.
2. Zoom In/ Out
Web content often needs to be adjusted to fit the small screen of smart feature phones. We designed the zooming in/out function to make this easy. It’s accessible via hardware keys 1 and 3 and enables users to quickly adjust the content to fit the screen.
3. Cursor Mode and Scroll Mode
On smart feature phones, scrolling is not as easy as on smartphones; users must use their cursor keys to do so. To solve this pain point, we designed the scroll mode feature, which allows users to switch to scroll mode by pressing hardware key 2. In scroll mode, you can press a directional key to quickly scroll up or down a page.
4. Go to Top/ End
When you run into an infinite-scroll web page on a smart feature phone, getting back to the top or bottom is a painful experience. We enlisted hardware keys 5 and 8 to solve this problem. Users can quickly return to the top or the bottom by pressing one of these keys once.
5. Pin to Apps Menu
Most people are used to adding their favorite websites to a bookmarks folder. On KaiOS-enabled phones, we provide a more convenient way for users to do that with the “Pin to apps menu” function. This directly adds a website shortcut to the apps menu, allowing quicker access in the future.
At the Kai UX team, we’re always working to improve the user experience, despite the limited screen size and non-touch input. While challenging, these limitations drive us to design more useful and innovative ways for using smart feature phones.
Stay up to date on Kai’s journey by reading our blog or following us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
