Matias Duarte, designer behind Sidekick and Helio, now developing Palm's next-gen UI
By Ryan Block 
posted July 3rd 2008 7:31PM
posted July 3rd 2008 7:31PM
So we heard from a very reliable source that mobile user interface guru Matias Duarte -- who you may know as the man behind the Sidekick and Helio UI / user experiences -- actually left Helio late last year to join up with Palm. Although no announcement was made, we hear he and his gang of designers jumped ship (well before Helio completely flooded) to take on the monumental task of designing the UI for Palm's next-gen mobile OS (aka "Palm OS 2.0 or II"). His resume online now lists him as "Senior Director, Human Interface and User Experience" doing "Something new..." since September 2007; we got in touch with Palm, who confirmed that he's now under the company's employ.Of course, expectations should be pretty high -- Palm's only been promising this supposedly game-changing OS since around 2004, and the company's reputation and pedigree is (or at least it used to be) in groundbreaking mobile UI design. But this news also kind of makes us wonder: if they didn't have a killer UI and user experience team already in place and long-since working their asses off by late 2007, exactly how far along are they on this thing, anyway?
okay so they've brought in people from Apple and now Matias Duarte, great... now please just finish the project and release already.... at this rate, by the time you're done, it will be old already
@Larrysyr.
It is this backwards compatibility issue that I think is holding Palm back. It is the same issue that holds Windows and Windows Mobile back. I really believe that in order for Palm to make this work, they need to concentrate less on backwards compatibility and make a concentrated effort to produce something that will make people switch over to them. Granted PIM data and other basic programs should be compatible, but I think that they should not concentrate wholeheartedly on that aspect of the business.
The example of success in this field is Apple. They revamped their dying OS and switched to OSX with a unix backbone and they now have one of the best operating systems out there. They proved that if you develop a magnificent operating system, developers will flock to you.
Lifedrivedoc.
And yet Apple also has a compatibility layer for many of their older programs.
what happened to the ipod guy the brought in before to lead the UI effort? did he give up already?
Great, I think I would rather hear about the remaining Palm staff though. The OS was dated but it has the best one hand functonality of any os.
The Palm OS needs two things that I am aware of.
It needs updated visuals. No big deal to achieve, but the source of most of the "outdated" comments above.
And it needs multitasking, or at least updates and such in the background. I think this is a bigger deal.
And ditto the comments on usability. The Palm OS was the best thought-out, simplest, easiest to use, and most efficient for the user of all the OS's I have seen. Brilliant.
Guru my arse...
I know this guy - he did jack shit at Helio apart from alienate the entire company from his team - and a reliable source tells me he is doing the same at Palm...
He is a guru at claiming the glory off others backs though - about time shit stuck to this idiot