The iPhone and usability

The BBC has suggested the iPhone could be in UK shops this Christmas, in which case it will doubtless be filling out a good few stockings hanging over the fireplace. I’ve managed to get my hands on one early to test how easy it is to use.

My first reaction was that it feels very good in the hand, and is not as large as expected, given that it packs a music player, phone, web browser and email in a single unit. Because it’s thin and has generously rounded corners, it feels relatively small and comfortable in the hand. It is significantly heavier than expected, which contributes to the overall sense of quality.

Nearly all the features are accessed using the touch screen. It’s more sensitive than most touch screens in consumer devices today, so you can use your fingers and don’t have to use a stylus. Text entry, on the other hand, is slow because the touch screen QWERTY keys lack the tactile feedback of a conventional keypad and are smaller and closer together. If you need to enter numbers or punctuation, you’ll have to page through to use a separate virtual keyboard. There’s also rather minimal predictive text. Instead, Apple has introduced corrective text, which waits until you’ve entered a word to fix mistakes. All of these factors mean that text entry takes quite a lot of getting used to, and that texting while walking down the street is not as easy as with a conventional keypad.

The iPhone is the first device with multi-touch functionality to be marketed to the general public. The touch screen can detect more than one touch at a time, and Apple has used this to enable a pinching gesture for zooming. Two fingers are placed on the screen and either closed together or spread apart to zoom in or out. It’s easily learned, but far from intuitive, so users who skip the manual are unlikely to pick it up.

Users can also flick through songs and contact lists, like they’re flicking through the pages of a book. It’s an improvement on the scroll wheel and the interface has just the right momentum to enable users to find what they’re looking for. Menus are shallow, which makes it easy to access features, but also limits the user’s ability to configure the device.

The iPhone falls somewhat short on accessibility. Conventional phones have tactile features such as bumps and ridges, so that blind users can navigate the keyboard more easily. These same features also help advanced users to enter text without looking at the screen. With the iPhone, texting without looking at the device is nearly impossible.

Apple has waited until now so they can offer the right quality touch screen, screen resolution, mobile computing power and price. While the iPhone is not a cheap device, and it’s not intended to appeal to everyone, it will certainly delight users in its target market.
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