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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

First Impression is the Last Impression


Today morning when I connected my phone to my computer I received a notification from Nokia Suite that software updates are available for my phone. Without any delay I started upgrading my phone’s operating system from Symbian Anna to Nokia Belle.
The Upgrade process was divided in four parts:
  1. Downloading Installation Files
  2. Backup of the Phone Data
  3. Installation
  4. Restore of the Phone Data

 Downloading Installation Files: The download process started without any delay. Total installation file size was 266MB. It is not contextual here but after looking at the installation file size first thing which came in my mind that Installation file size for Win 98 was lesser than this but that was past. Now memory is much cheaper comparatively. Anyway, everything went well and Nokia Belle installation files are downloaded successfully. Now, it was the time for backup.

 Backup of the Phone Data: The Installation process backs up all the data available in phone memory into mass memory. The Backup of phone data is started successfully but couldn’t finish it properly. Installer displayed the message that it would restart the phone and requested not to touch the phone during this process. I pressed the OK button. Phone restarting begun but never ended. Basically, I was waiting for notification message on my computer screen but installer program never responded back. After waiting for 15 minutes I checked my phone and it was ON. I unplugged my phone and plugged it once again.

 The same process started once again.

Downloading Installation Files:  As installation files were already downloaded so this step was skipped by the system.

Backup of the Phone Data:  The Backup process was started. Once the backup is completed for an entity, it is ticked by the installer to show that the entire data backup is done for that entity. In this way Installer program has taken back up of Calendars, Messages, Logs and Dictionary etc. successfully but in the end it has displayed the error that there is some problem with messages back up. The installer gave the same notification message which was given earlier that it would restart the phone and requested not to touch the phone during this process.

 As I have experienced the same thing earlier so I was sure that after restarting the whole process would start once again because of the error shown by the installer program, but I was wrong.

Installation: The phone restarted but instead of taking back up the installation process was started. Two things which were surprising for me during installation were:

  • Selection of Language
  • Enter the Security Code
As per the notification message I should not respond even if phone asks this information so I didn’t give the input.

The installation process was finished successfully.

Restore:  Once new OS is installed, the restoring of backup data is started. Once it is completed, I got the notification message on my computer screen.

The Job was done.

Issue during and after the Installation process:
  • I lost all my messages in my phone. The installer program never given me a chance to take the backup of the messages when it was unsuccessful. It has started the installation process immediately. 
  •  It’s not a big issue but still I was wondering why I got language selection dropdown. Isn’t it was obvious from my previous installation that I use English as my language. Moreover there was no other language in the list to select.
  • Now this was really ridiculous. I have used phone unlocking code for few days but I have removed it later and before installation there was no unlocking code was required. But after installation I had to enter the security code. What If I would have forget my unlocking code which I used last time few months back. 
  •  I have lost the creation dates of notes and that was really important for me. Now it displays the time when the files were restored.  I am wondering why these file properties are not considered while taking the back. 
  •  There are three installation folders of Nokia Belle is created in mass memory which are duplicates of each other. Why three folder?
I didn’t go through all the changes yet but I am sure that I will find more issues due to this upgrade when I will use other functionality of my phone.  

Now the question is why there are so many issues with the installer program. It clearly shows that installation testing was not done properly. There are many challenges with Mobile Application Testing  including the diversity of the devices but Nokia should have make sure that upgrade is happening properly on their devices. Moreover, they have released the Nokia Belle update for only six devices till now so it was possible to do the proper installation testing on such a small number of devices. But…

Generally people say – First Impression is the last Impression. Installation of the application is first activity so it should be smooth and flawless for better user experience.

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