Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#1

Post by FictiveCameron » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 7:32 PM UTC

Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
cooper.com

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#2

Post by FictiveCameron » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 7:33 PM UTC

While this isn't a major pain point for me, I think it's a great mini UX case study by one of the folks at Cooper Design. Definitely spot on about the redundancy of checking the voicemail and then click on recent calls just to get rid of the dot.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#3

Post by brk » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 7:43 PM UTC

This was a really well written and thought-out piece.

I've had many of the same frustrations with my iPhone, the only reason that it's not more annoying is because I don't use my iPhone much as a phone.

The multi-account email switching also seems to be much more hassle than it really should need to be.

I'd also to be able to see some sort of missed calls/voicemails/emails status on the main screen, even before unlocking the phone. It seems trivial, but having to slide/unlock the phone just to get some basic status info gets tiresome after a while.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#4

Post by Oompa » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 8:04 PM UTC

However true this is, I think there are bigger issues at hand, like how horrible AT&T has been recently.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#5

Post by AGorilla » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 8:08 PM UTC

Mixing the voicemails in with the entire call history is a terrible idea for a few reasons: 1. If you've made/received enough phone calls to fill the page before checking your voicemails, you have to scroll or filter to find the new voicemail. 2. If you're trying to find an old voicemail, you have to filter or MEGA scroll to find it. 3. Voicemail is virtually hidden from new users. I can imagine many people tapping the icon with the little red 1 and then not having any idea what to do.

Counting voicemails and missed calls separately is a little annoying, but this is definitely not the way to solve the problem. If this were ever implemented I would throw my phone in the garbage.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#6

Post by amcclosky » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 8:08 PM UTC

I think the design of the apple UI in this case is more a product of the way missed calls and voice mails actually work.

I can't think of a reliable way to associate voice mails with the appropriate missed calls since multiple calls from the same number could and probably often do come in before the voice mail is even registered as existing by the phone.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#7

Post by pxlpshr » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 8:09 PM UTC

Dear Mr. Jobs, please fix the AppStore approval process before you do anything else.

I can live with the extra dot for missed calls, I actually like being reminded to call them back after listening to a voice mail.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#8

Post by pistoriusp » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 8:10 PM UTC

I'll concede his point, but... not everyone has visual voicemail. Like me, simply because I can't get it on my network in South Africa. So I never see little red dots over the voicemail tab.

Clicking on voicemail simply makes a phone call to my voicemail box.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#9

Post by teej » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 8:12 PM UTC

With this redesign, I gain the convenience of not having to clear the red dot. To me, that seems like a trivial pain point.

With this redesign, I -lose- information and functionality on voicemails. My home screen no longer indicates if I have unread voicemails, only missed calls. I can't separately manage my call history (which I never clear) and my voicemail inbox (which I always clear). I don't know with one glance how many missed calls vs voicemails I have.

That seems like a LOT of functionality loss for VERY LITTLE pain relieved.

Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone

#10

Post by callahad » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 8:16 PM UTC

teej wrote: post #9

With this redesign, I gain the convenience of not having to clear the red dot. To me, that seems like a trivial pain point. With this redesign, I -lose- information and functionality on voicemails. My home screen no longer indicates if I have unread voicemails, only missed calls. I can't separately manage my call history (which I never clear) and my voicemail inbox (which I always clear). I don't know with one glance…

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't two missed calls without voicemail display identically as a single missed call with voicemail? I don't think you have that information in the first place.

Once you get into the app, of course, things are conflated, but if anything, you're gaining information on the home screen: You can be sure that the number on the icon is the actual number of missed calls.