DEMOletter

Worst Phone UI Ever!

Chris Shipley

A few weeks back, I bought a new mobile phone from my (tongue planted firmly in cheek) favorite mobile carrier Cingular. I wanted an upgrade to Windows Mobile 5 and I wanted a good keyboard to support text messaging. Both of those requirements were well met with Cingular’s 8125. The clerk even took me to a mobile phone review blog to show me the glowing endorsements for the phone.


Three very frustrating weeks later, I have declared this the very worst user interface I’ve seen in my 22 years of covering technology products. The 8125 works fine enough as a pocket-sized PC. The UI works about the way you’d expect Windows and Windows applications might work on a miniature computer. Somewhere along the line, though, the designers and engineers got way into the PC-like aspects of the device and forgot that it was supposed to be – first and foremost – a phone.

I confess that I haven't fully read the manual, and haven't devoted an afternoon to systematically walk through every function and feature, but should I have to do that to make a simple phone call? Apparently, I do.

Simple things, like adding to contacts a phone number captured from caller ID, are almost impossible. Simpler still, looking up a contact nearly causes a traffic accident. In fact, the best thing I can say about the phone management features is that they are so bad they keep me from dialing while driving.

And poor Andy Abramson. His is the first name in my address book and some gremlin in the machine finds it necessary to dial his number every couple of days. Andy’s a nice guy, but I really don’t need to talk with him that often.

Fed up with the phone, I went back to Cingular over the weekend to see if I could use the new chip in my old phone. I’m willing, I guess, to hold onto the 8125 for the mobile e-mail and information applications that make this pocket computer valuable. But for the times when I just want a phone, my old Motorola is just fine. Somehow, though, when I swap chips, the old phone doesn’t work. In fact, the old phone – which isn’t really that old – doesn’t work with the generic chip the clerk tossed at me. And that the old phone ran into some strange glitch at exactly the point when Cingular deactivated the old chip was “just a coincidence,” and one that would be of concern to Motorola, not Cingular.

That I don’t much like the 8125 is really not the point, though. In fact, when I griped to the Cingular clerk his response was a dismissive “Huh, most people really like it.” That I don’t is a reflection of my character, apparently, and not of the design of the phone.

The real point is that I may have been right all those years ago when I advocated strongly for single-purpose, well-designed devices. I was (and still am) a Don Norman devotee, and I argued in DEMOletter columns in the late '90s that the compromises required to pack so much functionality into a single appliance or device would diminish key capabilities and lead to kludgy interfaces. But in recent years, buoyed by the success of smart phone platforms, I allowed myself to entertain the idea that I might have been wrong. The Treo, after all, was selling like hotcakes. A chorus of hundreds of thousands Blackberry addicts rang out when the device finally integrated a phone. The Opera browser and Handmark’s great information applications made data delivery to a mobile phone an empowering experience. Maybe all that functionality could be packed into a relatively tiny mobile device.

Perhaps it can ... just not on the 8125. And not on any device designed by product planners who forget that each device has a primary purpose that must be the centerpiece of the device. Indeed, in today’s very mobile world, most people would prefer to carry only one device that delivers both phone and information communications. I suppose, we’re willing to suffer some tradeoffs to get that convenience. But a mobile phone needs to be a mobile phone FIRST. The UI has to be designed for mobile calling, which includes one-hand operation while on the move (not that I’m advocating dialing and driving, mind you.).

Mobile phone designers need to stop chasing features and start chasing user experience. Indeed, that can be said of the entire mobile information and communication market. Few people I speak to are fully satisfied with their mobile communications. Worse, though, is that few mobile customers expect things to be better. And it has to.

July 24, 2006

Comments

Feature glut, and it's effect on usability is, apparently, something tht lost on hrdwre makers that build machines designed for a partner that's vested in the idea of opening huge spreadsheets or word processing documents on a handheld device. The biggest operational constraint the people in this space face is system memory and then comes the reality call when the hardware makers wake up and discover their partner has them chasing a fast moving target. Look at how different the Palm experience is with the Palm-based OC Treo 650. It works very well as a phone and almost none of its users expect to write the Declaration of Idependence on it, or manage a financial empire from afar. It does work well for managing appointments, taking notes and managing contacts as well as a mobile phone. And thos are it's five prime missions. It's a platform designed around a fixed mission, Chris.

Best,

Jim Forbes

Posted by: Jim Forbes on July 30, 2006 04:32 PM

Thank you! May I please fall I my knees and give up a prayer of joy that someone ELSE thinks this phone is simply one of the most disappointing, poorly functioning, poorly documented, poorly implemented, and in the end, utterly unusable pieces of expensive (VERY!) trash they've ever been conned into trying to utilize?
Thank you, Chris - I now know i'm not alone.

Posted by: molotovmouse on August 6, 2006 10:58 PM

Chris kindly avoided pointing the blame for her phone woes. It's actually my fault that she ended up with the damn thing.

You can hear my mea culpa, along with an extended conversation about user interface issues at http://www.guidewireconnection.com/categories/podcasts/conversationwchris/default.asp?item=169030

Posted by: Cathy Brooks on August 14, 2006 10:09 PM

> Simpler still, looking up a contact nearly causes a traffic accident.

Please shut up and drive. I'll bet it says that in the user guide somewhere.

> In fact, the best thing I can say about the phone management features is that they are so bad they keep me from dialing while driving.

That's a benefit not to be discounted.

> The UI has to be designed for mobile calling, which includes one-hand operation while on the move (not that I’m advocating dialing and driving, mind you.).

Huh. It sure sounds like you are, if not advocating it, at least practicing it.

Posted by: Angus Hill on August 24, 2006 11:55 AM

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