iPhone Design vs. Usability (Round 1)
By Wade Forst on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007Design and usability are to many “form and function” - the chocolate and peanut butter, and also the difference between an amazing product and a soon to be forgotten one.
I would like this blog post to be Round 1 of the debate over the design interface, the overall product design and its usability among the public. What this is not is a place to complain about Apples’ battery life issues from previous technologies or how Apple will be creating yet another design movement that will effect everything from toasters to toilets. (see iMac)
(Enter and exit Ring Girls and the sound of the bell)
iPhone Advertisement (use in action)
Product Shots:
Okay, I’ll bite.
For starters, I don’t think design and usability compete, they complement. The iPhone may be the quintessential example. I think its interface will prove to be either sheer brilliance or a bomb.
From a usability standpoint, the design of the iPhone may solve two of the mobile phone’s biggest usability problems:
1. The difficulty in seeing items on the tiny screen.
2. The difficulty in using a phone keypad for purposes other than entering a phone number.
How does the iPhone solve these issues? By having a soft, touchscreen keyboard. Instead of buttons to push, keyboards and keypads appear on the screen. This means:
1. Because the phone doesn’t have to accommodate a hard keypad, an entire side of the device can be devoted to the screen.
2. Because the interface controls appear on the screen, the iPhone can display appropriate interface controls for the task. For entering a text message, we can see a letter keyboard. For entering a phone number, we can use a number keypad.
The potential downfall? That soft keyboard again. I have no idea what it’s like to use a touchscreen keyboard on a device that small. If it’s easy to learn, then great. (I wonder whether the keys will be easy enough or too easy to press.) If not, then the iPhone may be a bomb instead of brilliance.
One thing that I await to see is how the iPhone relates to the visually impaired with its’ Voice Over technology.
My first thoughts of the visual, liquid keypad were of amazement. After seeing it in action, it is a true art in how simplistic the navigation is.
My second thoughts were accesibility, which I understand not every blind person is going out to get an iPhone… but without having a “textured” 5 key for reference the phone could be completely unusable to a small audience.
So, how will Apple work in their already practiced features for those who need them on the iPhone. Do we see buttons that enlarge before touch?
As I am confident that Apple will make the iPhone as usable as possible, I wonder how much accessibility will change product and visual design design throughout many different products and mediums.
Actually, in the case of the iPhone I would say that design may trump usability. Take the touch screen, for example. If we are looking at it from a simply ergonomic perspective, touch screens have more issues - accurate targeting, dirty screens and fingers, reinforcement of correct choice, etc.
Lets not forget learned behaviors: Many people are able to make a call without even looking at their phone keypads (Erica). How will they adjust to the iPhone?
Great points Wade! Who’s the usability professional again?
I agree turning the iPhone into a truly accessible product would be a huge challenge. Blind or visually impaired users could use a different device altogether.
However, Apple may want to consider the large population of users with less severe accessibility issues–older adults. Older adults have not only deteriorating vision and hearing but also reduced motor control. They’d have difficulty with the iPhone’s touchscreen controls.
There are a few mobile devices designed for the elderly out there, including Jitterbug. It’s geared toward emergency use. I’d be excited to see what Apple would design.
Tho I’m easily classifiable as a techno geek, I’m not sure I want an all-in-one device. Do I? Is convergence good for usability, or just good because you don’t have to lug 5 devices around?
There’s a usability axiom that goes something like “every feature you add makes it more difficult to get to any other feature.” A convergence device is an explicit decision to side-step this simple truth.
In my mind’s eye I can see this magic device that transforms into the perfect match for my current task. But I’m not sure that the iPhone is it. Fact is, making a call is not the same as jamming to tunes is not the same as surfing the web*. A one-size-fits all device just may not do any one of those things particularly well.
Who knows. I wasn’t crazy about the iPod either. I will say the gestural interface looks good.
One thing is for sure: unless it has a self-cleaning screen, the carbon footprint of each iPhone user is going to shoot up one screen wipey at a time.
[* It’s not “just the internet.” It’s the internet through a credit-card sized peep-hole, right?]
Personally having used a phone in the past that was all touchscreen keyboard, I think they are pretty frustrating. I had one of the original Treo phones, when it was still Handspring and that phone had a touchscreen keypad for entering numbers. I found it frustrating because I couldn’t feel if the key had actually been pressed or not, or which key I was pressing. Being able to feel the keys can save a ton of time.
I think Wade’s second screen shot is interesting, with the scrolling album covers. Having an MP3 player, I can’t think of the time I use it when I would want to have to flip through albums like that. It looks really cool, but I would have to be holding the phone sideways and touching albums. Who really wants to do that? I want to be able to scroll through songs, albums, play lists, and genres in a quick and compact fashion.
Danny brings up a good point. How many CD covers actually say the name of the album and artist clearly (not to mention viewing it on a small screen). Half the time they have elaborate cover art.
And really, who browses songs by album anymore?
as always..DO NOT BE THE FOOL TO BUY THE VERSION 1.0…you will be pissed when they come out with the 2nd generation…mac is notorious for releasing a product and 6 months later releasing another better faster sleeker meaner version for the same price you bought your 1.0 for…think back to your first iPod…now go put your money back in your bank and go on vacation and get wasted
To Danny’s points about the touchscreen keyboard, that’s exactly my concern. I really hope Apple usability tested it.
However, the huge benefit I see is that the touchscreen allows the interface controls to be dynamic. So while I’m surfing the web or watching a video I can see and use only relevant controls instead of trying to use a letter or number keyboard to do the job.
All the above evaluations are valued and useful.
If you notice in text input, it is very thin and you cannot see the entire text typed. Which is a major drawback apple should consider by providing multiline(text area) to type and see the whole content.
I just saw a report today that Apple “sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours of sales.” Not too shabby.
This device is so different from anything else out there that I think it’ll be a year before we see how many ripples there are from this initial ‘rock in the pond’.
I’ve held one, used one, liked it, but not enough to fork out $500. (I got a Nintendo Wii instead).