Just skip going into contacts all together, go to and make sure you have a check mark in the box next to "contacts". From there when you need a contact, just press the search soft button on your phone and begin typing (or speaking) the name you are looking for. The results window will populate with that contact...then wola, you have saved several navigations to get where you need to go.
*** Even better yet, make sure all of your contacts exist in your Gmail account (as opposed to MS exchnage for instance) then long press on the search soft button which brings up the voice dialer application, speak "call (contactname) at (home, mobile, etc)" and badda-bing, no typing at all and your phone dials.
Hope this helps.