I don’t love my iPhone
This may sound controversial but I admit it, I don’t love my iPhone. I realise I could get into trouble for admitting this publicly but I’m prepared to accept that, to get these thoughts off my chest. I was considering going to a self-help group, especially as I am surrounded by lovers of the phone, but instead I am sharing my thoughts on our blog. And I do expect arguments to the contrary.
There are a number of reasons I don’t love my phone (and a few reasons it’s not so bad):
1) I can’t walk down the street writing a text message
Ok, I like writing text messages and I like to send a quick message every now and again. I am also female and I like to multitask. With my old phone (Nokia N95) I used to be able to walk down the street, not looking at my phone and feel the buttons and know what I was pressing and write a message. With my nice smooth-screened iphone I have no clue where the buttons are and lampposts keep jumping out at me so the quality of the experience and my efficiency has decreased.
2) It feels like I’m putting unnecessary stress and strain on my thumbs while I try to hover to write text
Maybe it’s just me (as a 2 thumbed writer of text) but when I type any text into the iphone I find that my thumbs are kind of hovering over the keypad and I take more strain on them. If I’ve been taking lots of notes or writing longer messages I feel my thumbs starting to get tired. I can’t seem to find a nice resting point on the phone without activating a key.
3) I feel like I have to be a robot and hold the phone just at the right angle or it keeps switching between the different views
Now I don’t tend to hold my phone particularly straight when I’m using it, but as a traditional girl I prefer my phone to be upright (in portrait view) rather than sideways (landscape). However, on my iPhone, if I’m just casually looking it, reading something perhaps, then the screen has a tendency to just switch without asking to landscape view. All I do is casually hold it at a comfortable angle in my hand. Now, if I was a robot, then everything would be at neat 90 and 180 degree angles, and I wouldn’t have this problem. But I’m not a robot. (Someone told me how to get it back to portrait, but it doesn’t seem to work all the time).
4) I have to keep the phone switched on for my alarm clock to go off in the morning
I’m the type of person who likes to go to sleep with their phone switched off and charging overnight. Now, I know that the iPhone isn’t capable of this, although I have no idea why. However, back to my alarm - if I switch my phone off it doesn’t wake up automatically and switch itself on and then wake me up. Very rude if you ask me. So now, if I’m to use my alarm I am forced to keep the phone switched on. I know silent exists, so I shouldn’t be disturbed in the middle of the night by incoming calls or texts, but if the phone is there, and I wake up in the middle of the night I might sneak a quick peek to see if I’ve received a text overnight, so, I prefer to have it switched off. And I don’t want to lose precious battery life if my phone doesn’t need to be charged. I also liked the way my old phone would tell me how many hours I had to sleep, something my iPhone doesn’t do either.
5) It takes longer to send text messages
One of my ex Flow colleagues Martin once did a study looking at how fast people could send text messages on different devices. There was a difference between the speed that they perceived they were typing the message and the speed that they actually did type the text message. I haven’t measured myself, so maybe it’s true for me too (although I think not if you know me and have seen me text).
T9 was great. Nice and easy if you’d learnt it, with an option to scroll through the words that might come up as possible combinations. Worked fine. Now I have a qwerty keypad and no choice to revert to the old numeric keypad T9 that I love. I was hunting around for the option to switch this on on my iPhone but there doesn’t seem to be one – of course I didn’t get a manual (as it relies on me being motivated to go and seek one online) so I haven’t been able to check that. Now, I can touch type on a large keypad so I’m pretty aware of where the buttons are on a keypad but having to use them with my thumbs causes no end of problems. I’ve got quite large fingers and thumbs for a girl, but still I’m constantly pressing the wrong key, switching to capitals when I didn’t want to, trying to work out how to not accept the word suggestion it offers baffles me. Though I do like the way that the recommended words account for the fact you probably pressed the wrong keys.
6) I don’t know how many text messages I’m sending
Now, for those of you who aren’t aware, not all phone tariffs have unlimited texts. Therefore there is a big difference in price between a text that is 160 characters long and one that is 161 characters long. My iPhone seems to disregard this, and doesn’t tell me how many characters I’m using. Is the assumption that we all have bottomless pockets or that the number of text messages flying across the world should increase? A simple indication of the number of texts I’m creating would be a real bonus.
7) The battery life is bad – I refuse to keep it connected to an energy source all day
Ok, if you don’t use the phone then it’s fine. But as it is, there to be lots of other things on the iPhone aside from the phone – and it’s designed for these to be used better than the simple phone functions (as far as I can tell). It seems a real shame that there isn’t a low energy mode that will conserve power, or I can’t switch the thing off while I’m powering up overnight.
Things I love about it
1) It’s nice to have all texts viewed as a conversation
This is a really nice touch. I’d like to have the ability to order the text conversations alphabetically by person though, so I can easily find a previous one with a certain person, but then I’d have to be able to short link to a letter in the alphabet but as there isn’t a keypad, I can’t seem to do this – hmm…
2) It’s nice to be able to view my voicemails and play them back
A while back at Flow we were designing a new voicemail system, and people we spoke to said they found great value in voicemails from loved ones, children who lived far from home and relatives who’d passed away, so the idea that the messages live on your phone and you can replay when you like – even on the tube – is a great one.
I’m sure there are more things that I love, but if I was to include 7 here that would seem unfair to my rant.
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Good points
Now, this is why do I love my iPhone:
http://www.erenemre.com/2009/09/why-do-i-love-my-iphone/
Jude,
Thank you for speaking out. I too, do not love my iPhone! There - I've said it now. And I feel some relief in knowing that there are others, maybe only a few of us, who share these feelings. You are not alone...
I too have big problems with the text input on the iPhone. I've not done a proper study, but I am pretty sure that I now send very many fewer text messages and I tend to call people more as it's just too much hassle to type.
At first I suspected that I just had very poor thumb co-ordination, but then I noticed that almost every email I receive from an iPhone seems to include an apology for poor spelling in the sig file at the end of each message.
At the very least, I'd for the thumb-challenged like myself to have the option of switching to a good old 12-digit conventional phone keypad layout and using T9. But no. We have to stick with the stupid full QWERTY keyboard on a screen that just ain't suited to it. Apple FAIL.
The other big problem I have is the flipside of your rant #4. Oddly enough, I was under the impression that the alarms *did* sound, even if the phone was switched off. But what I've found really drives me crazy is that "silent" doesn't mean "silent" - it just means that the actual ringer won't sound. Alarms still work - as you'll discover if you're unfortunate enough to be at the opera exactly one week after the alarm you set up one evening last week. This now leaves me with a nagging sense of nervousness whenever I switch my phone to silent in the cinema.
Like you, there is a lot that I love about my iPhone. But it has MANY, many flaws.
What is interesting as a UX person is how willing people are to forgive some pretty major design mistakes in return for an amazing aesthetic. This has implications for what we do every day.
I totally agree with you on all these gripes — I used to be a T9 texting machine, now I avoid texting as much. I can't stand landscape mode and wish there was a way to turn it off altogether.
I also hate a lot of other little things: You can't call someone straight from the contacts screen — tapping their name opens their detail page, then you have to click the number (even if you only have one number for the person, which is usually the case.) BUT tapping a person's name in Recents or Voicemail screens calls them immediately. It's very confusing.
Or when you get a notification that you got a voicemail and the screen says you can "slide to listen." So I slide, then hold the phone up to my ear, ready to listen. It always takes me a beat to remember I have to tap the voicemail to play it. (That's not really Slide to Listen, is it?)
I hate the delay between getting a text message and opening the text messages screen to read it. I hate the constant film of grease and fingerprints all over the screen. I hate that I can only see the notifications screen before I unlock the phone, and there's no history of notifications/alerts.
I'm sure there are a lot of other things I hate about it, but it doesn't mean I don't love it. I love the integration of Google maps and GPS so much, it far outweighs many of those gripes. I love being able to figure out if there's a bus that will get me to my destination on time, right now, wherever I am, or if I need to call a cab. (And I can load up Safari and google a cab number and call it right from the search results page.) Add to that some of the other apps I use regularly, and we're inseparable, my iPhone and me.
The bad stuff is just nuts in my brownies (Yuck! But still, brownies!)
Interesting post! I couldn't help but reply, but as this was way too long for a comment, I wrote my own blog post: "The iPhone is not a great mobile phone, but I still love it."
http://www.alphabux.net/2009/10/the-iphone-is-not-a-great-mobile-phone/
Re the charging overnight, I switch mine to airplane mode. The alarm will come on as usual but you can't be disturbed by incoming texts, calls or emails.
: )
I TOTALLY agree with you. I greatly dislike the landscape mode. Then only time I use it is for viewing pictures or videos.
I do miss T9 as well. I had a sweet Sony Ericsson w880i, it was thin and to the point. I do like all the apps and stuff for the iPhone, but I had my iPod touch long before I got the phone, so it wasn't anything new to me. Plus, the apps run much slower (and choppier) on the phone, but I have the 3G version.
Another thing I don't like: EVERYONE HAS ONE. The iPhone has lost its edge, to me, and I would love a new one that nobody had. I would somewhat miss the apps, but I still have my iPod touch. Guess I'll wait until there's a NEW iPhone out
Jude I have the same issue with the touchscreen keyboard on my HTC Hero. I love having a devices that is so many more things than my last mobile phone, but when it comes to sending texts it is definitely trickier especially when you are on the move. But I'm willing to make the trade off! The HTC does at least have some real buttons (home, back etc.) unlike the iPhone and in my view is a better designed device
Point 6 - Download the O2 app from the app store and it will show you the number of minutes, texts, etc... you have remaining
Do you think you'd use T9 for texting and the full keyboard mode for URLs, were both available?
Or do you think that if you weren't forced to learn the keyboard, you'd be losing out?
I blogged about this question - interested to hear people's thoughts:
http://kazaroth.posterous.com/were-apple-right-not-to-offer-t9-on-the-iphon
Since you're moderating: please change the final link to:
http://notinventedhere.posterous.com/were-apple-right-not-to-offer-t9-on-the-iphon
Cheers
Great post Jude.
One of the most widespread behavioural changes that mobile phones have brought in is that many young people have stopped wearing wristwatches.
...Primarily because almost every mobile has the time displayed permanently.
So there's another design aspect which is hard to believe was overlooked:
I have to press a button every time I want to know the time. ... so now I'm back to wearing a watch, as it's one step too far for me.
That's progress I guess.
Try holding your phone in one hand and using your index finger to text. A friend told me that tip and it really made a big difference to me. Touch screens are not meant to be thumb-texted, they're meant to be pointer-finger texted.
I thought it would slow me down, but it helped with the landscape issue, the accuracy issue, and the thumb strain issue.
These are good reasons that my next phone will be a Sony Ericsson to replace my SE T610. I've had Nokia, Samsung and Motorola before that, and I had to use a qwerty Nokia E71 at a recent workplace, and I love my MacBook Pro, but for a phone, I just want a phone that does everything that a phone should do, really well, and with a keypad designed for a phone, not a miniature of a keyboard designed for touch typing! For other things I'll use my Mac!
my summery of the iphone is it's very good and being everything other than a phone. i can't text with it to save my life and write absolute rubbish - even in landscape i hit the wrong keys - it's such an inefficient way of texting. I've given up texting and walking after a number of embarrassing collisoins with inanimate objects...why has apple decided we can't have bigger keys and a numerical keypad for texting. You can't text on the tube and the the phone automatically send when you regain reception. The phone itself is not the best. no reception in parts of my flat which i've never had a problem with before / randomly no reception in parts of london/ drops calls all the time ...
I do like the maps - although a pocket A-Z is no bigger.......