Understanding Symbian Belle: Exclusive design video documentary

We visit Nokia's London studio to uncover the design story of an operating system

Published by Mike Cooper on October 10, 2011

 


LONDON, England – Symbian Belle marks the latest step in the iterative evolution of Symbian. You may already know what Belle lets you do, and the new features it includes (if not check out our quick lowdown), but here on Conversations it’s our responsibility to dig deeper and use our exclusive access to bring you an inside look behind the blue curtain. So with that in mind we decided to shoot a short video documentary at Nokia’s London design studio with a view to surfacing the lesser-known story behind Belle and Nokia’s design process. We interview the designers responsible for Symbian Belle and let them explain the vision, observations, learnings and processes go into creating a great user experience.

Sit back, hit play, and share your thoughts and questions with us in the comments section. And check out our behind-the-scenes photo gallery.

Behind the scenes photos

Symbian Belle comes pre-loaded on the new Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600. And if you’re using existing Symbian^3 phone, Symbian Belle will soon be available on the following handsets: Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia X7, Nokia E6 and Nokia 500.

Comments

  • Mwahren

    Nokia Link may be simplicity itself, but, it is also simplistic. There are more things than music, video and pics that we would like to interact with the pc or tablet. Calendars come to mind straight away. Whilst Ovi suite was not a perfect piece of software it is far better than nokia link.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Ahmed.Boondoq Ahmed Bondok

    please i wanna update my n8 with symbian belle it`s amazing symbian and i know it will make my nokia n8 soo soo amazing so hurry and make it available :)

  • lordstar

    Is there any news regarding a Symbian C update?

  • Sibabrata

    Please release Symbian Belle for N8.

  • Sibabrata

    Please release Symbian Belle for N8.

  • pratikdify

    when the symbian belle update is coming for C7…m waitin for it since months…make it available a.s.a.p.!!

  • lordstar

    Can’t help but compare this video with the lumia 800 design documentary. This is a much better documentary video giving us an in-depth look of how Nokia observes people and integrates instinctive behaviors into the software, making us appreciate Symbian belle more. Good job to the nokia research team and software designers. I love how they make use of human psychology and how they get information from their research to provide a better user experience. Good good job!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Irshad506 Irshad Payanda

    Hello Dear!

    Hope you are fine so mean every time act fast and which can provide more satisfaction to your customers every time you act very late.

    waiting for Belle become very long so man hurry what r u doing???

    and use that kind of hardware which can work for one or two years your hardware is very old in every your new phone you are very far from market.
    you just want to sell your mobile, i think you don’t like to satisfy your customers and ……………!

    OK Thanks from your Attention!

  • Anonymous

    Symbian Belle is great update for all of us that we love and support Symbian,
    is great for Nokia because we been in love with Nokia for this OS and
    of course is great for the Symbian it self..
    And Carla – Donna updates in forthcoming years i think that “close” the rumours about Symbian “death”..
    As for the new devices who comes with Belle, i think that you’ve done a big mistake.., and this is the camera support… Fixed-focus and no secondary camera is not good option.., and about the phone that i want to buy (603) no led flash..!! All of this to make phones cheaper?
    603 big brother who comes with MS OS comes with 3.7″ display and autofocus camera with flash and it’s 70euro price difference….!!
    I think that you must see again the camera problem, and don’t give all the good stuff to WP..
    For the end i like to say that MeeGo and Symbian are the best OS’s in the market and with your support i think that they are the future for Nokia..  

    • Anonymous

      EDoF is not as good as we were told about. But, you know what, I found out that I can live with it. It doesn’t make me happy, but I accepted it.
      You will get LED flash in Nokia 700.
      603 seems to be sabotaged model

    • dhavale.chetan

      can we upgrade s60 to belle? 

  • Anonymous

    Symbian Belle is great update for all of us that we love and support Symbian,
    is great for Nokia because we been in love with Nokia for this OS and
    of course is great for the Symbian it self..
    And Carla – Donna updates in forthcoming years i think that “close” the rumours about Symbian “death”..
    As for the new devices who comes with Belle, i think that you’ve done a big mistake.., and this is the camera support… Fixed-focus and no secondary camera is not good option.., and about the phone that i want to buy (603) no led flash..!! All of this to make phones cheaper?
    603 big brother who comes with MS OS comes with 3.7″ display and autofocus camera with flash and it’s 70euro price difference….!!
    I think that you must see again the camera problem, and don’t give all the good stuff to WP..
    For the end i like to say that MeeGo and Symbian are the best OS’s in the market and with your support i think that they are the future for Nokia..  

  • dhavale.chetan

    can we upgrade s60 to belle?

    • Anonymous

      No, unfortunately not. It’s a different kind of hardware.

    • Anonymous

      No, unfortunately not. It’s a different kind of hardware.

    • Anonymous

      No, unfortunately not. It’s a different kind of hardware.

    • Anonymous

      No, unfortunately not. It’s a different kind of hardware.

    • Anonymous

      No, unfortunately not. It’s a different kind of hardware.

  • Abdul Rehman

    nokia 603 is one of best designs of nokia but no flash why……………………. please add a flash to it and i heard that nokia is having more great devices to launch like the successor of nokia n8 

  • Abdul Rehman

    nokia 603 is one of best designs of nokia but no flash why……………………. please add a flash to it and i heard that nokia is having more great devices to launch like the successor of nokia n8 

  • Abdul Rehman

    nokia 603 is one of best designs of nokia but no flash why……………………. please add a flash to it and i heard that nokia is having more great devices to launch like the successor of nokia n8 

  • Abdul Rehman

    nokia 603 is one of best designs of nokia but no flash why……………………. please add a flash to it and i heard that nokia is having more great devices to launch like the successor of nokia n8 

  • Abdul Rehman

    nokia 603 is one of best designs of nokia but no flash why……………………. please add a flash to it and i heard that nokia is having more great devices to launch like the successor of nokia n8 

  • Abdul Rehman

    nokia 603 is one of best designs of nokia but no flash why……………………. please add a flash to it and i heard that nokia is having more great devices to launch like the successor of nokia n8 

  • http://www.facebook.com/rohim.uddin Rohim Uddin

    Please add a feature back into the OS, Which was available in E63 phones. Editing of Labels in Contact Details (Mobile, Phone, etc.).

  • Prakash N Iyer

    The Way The Video Has Been Showcased is really good. It lets people know what goes into making their experience that much more  special and better ! :) i loved it. Continue the Good Work .. Cant wait for more videos like these !

  • http://twitter.com/mradbourne Matt Radbourne

    The document shown in the video at 0:58 looks really interesting. Is that available to the public?

  • Anonymous

    I have, some days ago, downloaded the Belle ‘upgrade’ onto my Nokia E7. At first use, I thought that it was certainly a ‘visual’ advance, and I percevered. However, in terms of ’use’ et al, I actually prefer my previous, pre-updated version. Can anyone kindly advise me as to how I can remove this Belle download? I shall be most grateful for your advice. Best wishes.  

  • Anonymous

    I have both a Nokia N8 (private) and a iPhone, and actually I clearly prefer the N8 to the iPhone. And with the new Belle update I now have a really great phone. I whish the symbian platform a long and glorious future! :-)

  • steelicon

    We support Nokia Symbian! Long live Symbian!

  • http://www.facebook.com/awisi.darley Awisi Darley

    I have updated my N8 with the Symbian Belle but cant connect to the internet. How can I solve this problem?

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      You’re best asking these type of questions on the Nokia Support Discussion forums, the people there dedicate their time to helping others.