However true this is, I think there are bigger issues at hand, like how horrible AT&T has been recently.
This has been thoroughly discussed in other threads. No need to bring it into this one.
Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
11–20 of 40 posts
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#12This 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 unloc…
What's really strange to me is that 3rd party notifications get more prominence on the locked screen than the 1st party apps like email. My emails are much more important than a sports score or IM but the 3rd party stuff has access to the screen and email doesn't publish status there.
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#13The "red text" suggestion won't work for some color-blind people. There's got to be some non-color visual representation of the state.
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#14With 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.
True, you are gaining the information of the -exact- number of missed calls you have. The information isn't important on the main screen though. The current design tells me about the -absence- of a voicemail, when it has a red (1) on it. That is what I'm losing in this design.
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#15I 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.
Many frontends simply emulate the behavior of the backend. This is unacceptable if it interferes with user experience - and really is just lazy design. You want a comprehensive user experience, not a thin wrapper around the command line.
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#16Mixing 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 t…
Hmm... compromise perhaps: Voicemail page stays the same, loses an indication of new voicemails, Call log keeps indication of new calls and ability to play voicemail associated with a call. No change to coloring of missed calls.
* Point 1 is mitigated because missed calls show up in red. * Point 2 is mitigated because voicemail page remains. * Point 3 is ignored because it's probably not a huge concern.
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#17Mixing 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 t…
[deleted]
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#18Mixing 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 t…
Hmm... compromise perhaps: Voicemail page stays the same, loses an indication of new voicemails, Call log keeps indication of new calls and ability to play voicemail associated with a call. No change to coloring of missed calls. * Point 1 is mitigated because missed calls show up in red. * Point 2 is mitigated because voicemail page remains. * Point 3 is ignored because it's probably not a huge concern.
That would be nice except aren't there ways to leave voicemails directly? In that case you would have a voicemail but no missed call. It's a less-than-important edge case, I admit.
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#19The "red text" suggestion won't work for some color-blind people. There's got to be some non-color visual representation of the state.
Even monochromats can differentiate red from black, because the black is substantially darker. (Which isn't necessarily to say that adding other cues isn't also a good idea.)
Re: Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
#20Great ideas here. Switching email accounts has got to be my biggest time sink on the iPhone. I have one account for work and one for personal and it is a pain having to go to one to read the new message and then switch to another to read those messages.
Another alternative would be to introduce a new view, which contained unread messages on all accounts, sort of like the Apple Mail interface on the mac which lets me choose between mailboxes or an aggregated view but instead of showing all mails it only shows ones that were unread upon opening the view.