Nintendo on DSi Browser: Make It Snappy!

In his latest "Iwata Asks" column at nintendodsi.com, the Nintendo President hosts a Q&A session with the team that worked on the DSi's internet browser.

It was a priority for the team to get the DSi browser to run quickly and smoothly. The team came up with the slogan, "Make it snappy!" An almost simultaneous response time of 1/60 of a second was the goal. Some "fun" and "convenient" ideas were dropped in order to ensure a snappy browser. If a webpage is loading slowly, the DSi will still show the user something moving so that they aren't left hanging, wondering if the page will ever show up. The effect is similar to what you find on the Wii internet channel.

Satoshi Furukawa, the team member in charge of creating the DSi browser, said it has more of the "Nintendo touch" than the original DS browser did. When asked to describe his definition of this touch, he said "it's the aggregate of characteristics that aren't quite visible to the eye, such as how satisfying the unit's response is when you press a button and the speed when you scroll." Furukawa likes the idea of children experiencing the internet for the first time on their DSi.

Webpages are displayed in one of two ways on the DSi, as they were on the DS. The page can be displayed either as it would on a personal computer, or the words can be wrapped to fit neatly on the DSi screen. Users can switch between these two modes on the fly.

The DS would display an entire webpage on the top screen and an enlarged image on the bottom. You could flip the two, but the images would simply switch positions. Now on the DSi, the transition is animated so that the screens shrink and enlarge. Another new feature is the ability to highlight words on a page with the stylus and perform a search for them.

The team is happy with its results, believing the DSi browser to be easier and faster to use than other handheld devices on the market.

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