By Eddie_Lopez.
Friday, 7. March 2008, 13:29:50
cell phone, mobile, usability, bluetooth
...
Someone finally implemented an idea
I mentioned here, integrating a Bluetooth headset directly into the phone!
Interesting concept, there's only a few details
from gizmodo. The usability aspects are interesting- you charge only one device, you can choose to use it or not, but it's always available (not in your car when you want it elsewhere), you don't have to carry the headset around with you. I think it makes sense to combine phone with handset.
By kmaage.
Friday, 16. March 2007, 15:46:36
customization, iPhone, task frequency, cell phone
User-focused design embraces the idea of categories of use. First learn what people do
most with your device and make sure those tasks are supported. Then round out the application in a cohesive way to also support less frequent and other related tasks.
One design approach, usually taken by Apple, is to actually remove (or perhaps not enable) rarely-used features. iMovie, for instance has a certain number of title effects, with a limited number of settings, and that's it. The iPhone, when it comes out later this year, will have a certain way of visualizing text-message conversations, and no other. (as far as I can tell from the demos)
Another design approach is to offer a smörgåsbord of features and tools, and allow the person some way to customize their most-used things for easy access. Most cell phones do this with some sort of "shortcuts" menu. (
literal Swedish for smorgasbord: "sandwich table")
The problem with the first approach is that some small percentage of the time (5%? 10%?) the person simply
can't accomplish their task, because the tools don't exist. This is
very frustrating for people (for a short time).
The problem with the second approach is that for a large percentage of the time (50%? 60%?) the person has to bother with configuring and remembering stuff in order to get it "just right." This is only mildly frustrating, but much more frequent.
I think most of us here lean toward preferring the second approach, but I have to admit that I truly appreciate the simplicity of approach #1 for one-time or infrequent tasks.
As a practical exercise: Give me your list of...five frequent tasks using your phone. And remember to think outside the brick (for instance, "get help seeing in a dark room (flashlight)" might actually be a more frequent task for many people than "take a picture").
WIDGETIZE