Improving on the iPhone
I have recently completed some user testing and one of the devices used was an iPhone. This device is often venerated as being the epitome of style, user-friendliness and cutting-edge technology. Indeed, I often find that when handing an iPhone to a participant in the labs, a very soft “Wow” escapes their lips! (I am not sure though whether it is the phone that elicits this reaction or the reputation of it.)
I agree that the iPhone is an excellent piece of kit in many ways and those who own and use one often promote its usage (sometimes tediously!) However, my testing highlighted a couple of areas that were not acceptable to the participants and in fact, gave a negative user experience. These were:
- When a text message is received on an iPhone, the phone ‘wakes’ and the entire text message is displayed on the screen for all and sundry to read. I mean, I am not Tiger Woods, but I wouldn’t want everyone who was passing my desk to read my message – especially if I wasn’t around to hide it!
- When the phone is locked and an incoming call is received, the user cannot reject the call but only has the option to ‘slide to accept’ it. You can mute the call by clicking on the physical button at the top of the left hand side but not everyone is aware that this button exists. So, what are your options – to let it ring itself out (before you ring its neck!) or to answer a call you may want to avoid?
Out of interest, are there any others out there (come on all you iPhone users) that can suggest improvements? Please comment below…
Originally written by Amanda Roach
Comments
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FabienThe first point you mention is a preference “show preview” that can easily be turned off.
For the second point you can also discard an incoming call with the top right button.There are a lot of things that could be made better on the iPhone, but I’m not sure those points are the most important ones.
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Steve WI agree it’s a fantastic piece of kit, the iPhone is the most pleasurable experience I’ve had as a user with a smart phone.
I also agree with both the negative comments and have experienced frustration with them myself. My other main niggle is that after answering a call it can be tedious to get back to music listening. It’s a 3 or 4 step process of exit phone menu, open iPod application, (press “now playing” if you’ve been browsing your library), press play. I don’t usually use “hands free” so this might make the process better, but it would be nice if the iPhone remembered that you were listening to music before you were interrupted by the call.
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Amanda RoachMany thanks for your comment Fabien. However, as a non-iPhone user (the same as my participants), we were not immediately aware of what we could do to rectify the situation. Indeed, I often find when talking to people (even those in the UX world) and testing participants, that very few make changes to the default settings on their mobile devices.
The testing that I refer to was also on other devices and several of those gave a better experience for the points I made. For instance, a Sony Ericsson device had the option to mute, accept, reject a call clearly displayed on the touchscreen.
You mention that a lot of things could be improved on the iPhone but you don’t say what. I would be really interested in hearing these.Thank you Steve also for your really interesting comment. I am not sure which generation of the iPhone you are using but I am wondering if this is something that Apple have picked up on. The device we used in testing was a 3GS, 32 GB iPhone (which I believe was released last year). When the user is listening to music on this device (without headphones) and a call comes in, the music is interrupted but returns after ending the call.
It would be interesting to know if this is something that has been sorted out in later builds as it shows that Apple are interested in its users needs.
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Xavier KlingenfusRegarding the two things Amanda picked up on, Fabien is entirely right.
But what I take away from what Amanda said is really that some of the default settings (which the majority of users is indeed unlikely to change) dont seem very thoughtful. This is surprising as Apple is known for spending a lot of money in user research to make their device intuitive (so much that they dont even see the point of providing a user guide with the phone). One can then wonder why such primary features (sms and calls) are missing the point.But these flaws are usaully swept up by general users due to the ease of use of the phone and only picky eyes can spot them.
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David BomphreyFor me the most annoying is not being able to forward a text and that the phone function doesn’t default to your favourites list when you open it. Chances are you want to make a call and they are favourites for a reason.
Submitted by iPhone, very handy.
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Amanda RoachThanks for the comment Dave. This touches on some feedback I received over the weekend from another iPhone user. Although loving the device, he reluctantly acknowledged that the inability to forward a contact / business card was a bit of a pain.
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Matt ClarkeLike all of you, I have more than one email account. I have a personal email address for all things formal and business. I have a Google account for any sign-ups, newsletters and ecommerce. I also have some other personal email accounts. You get the picture.
With the iphone volume turned on, a beep will sound if you have an email, great, but which account is the email for? Well if you possess a photographic memory you may notice that where as before you had 39 unopened emails in your Gmail you may now have 40. However for the rest of us it’s just plain frustrating.
Surely the simple thing to do would be to have a highlight colour against the account that had received the most recent email, I would suggest colouring the unopened count. Surely I cannot be the first person to think this through.
