Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by mikeryan » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:08 PM UTC

teej wrote: post #14

callahad wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You seem to be picking nits. The _only_ time its telling you of an absence of a voicemail is when it's a 1.

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

#22

Post by makecheck » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:18 PM UTC

Those changes would be welcome, and aren't unique to the iPhone.

Apple could improve notification on the Mac side, too. Notifications aren't supposed to mean "drop everything and look at me", they're supposed to be easy to ignore for awhile. But the red numbers, and especially the bouncing icons, are extremely distracting. I am too often forced to do a "shut up, already!" click on the Dock (with accompanying unintended app switch) to quiet a bouncing app before getting back to my work.

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

#23

Post by mikeryan » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:19 PM UTC

AGorilla wrote: post #5

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 t…

I kind of agree but to the article's credit it does filter for voicemail.

To me it seems one option would be to remove the recent dot after viewing a voicemail.

That being said I think these two systems are independent of each other, ie there's nothing to link the voicemail to a recent call (seems the recent call is a "client" side action as opposed to the voicemail which is "server" side action). Without some sort of call id they can't really link the two to remove the dot on the recents when cleared from voicemail.

Actually the more I think about it the more I believe this is likely the case, I don't think recent calls are linked to voicemail. Anyone know?

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

#24

Post by ashot » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:23 PM UTC

close, but no cigar.

It should be a unified, filterable timeline of calls, voicemails, and txts (look ma, a newsfeed!)

I communicate with people (often the same people) through multiple mediums throughout the day. The most important information to me is what occured in the last 10 minutes, hour, day. why should I have to manually switch between types?

Open up one screen, flip through unread messages, voicemails, and calls.

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

#25

Post by tdavis » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:25 PM UTC

AGorilla wrote: post #5

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 t…

This was my reaction (though not as strong as throwing away my phone ;)

He could have stopped with the part about "don't use redundant dots" and I would've been all for it. The number is misleading, as is the annoyance of having to remove the indicator from Voicemail and Recent, but I don't think the answer is getting rid of one of them...

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

#26

Post by tdavis » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:26 PM UTC

mikeryan wrote: post #23

AGorilla wrote: post #5

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 t…

I kind of agree but to the article's credit it does filter for voicemail. To me it seems one option would be to remove the recent dot after viewing a voicemail. That being said I think these two systems are independent of each other, ie there's nothing to link the voicemail to a recent call (seems the recent call is a "client" side action as opposed to the voicemail which is "server" side action). Without some sort o…

That wouldn't matter. After a voicemail is received, compare its attributes to recently missed calls. If there was a missed call from the same number that left the voicemail, chances are good the recent highlight can be removed.

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

#27

Post by mikeryan » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:36 PM UTC

jimm wrote: post #13

The "red text" suggestion won't work for some color-blind people. There's got to be some non-color visual representation of the state.

True but its consistent with the current UX which indicates missed calls in red (if you're looking at All recent calls)

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

#28

Post by mikeryan » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:38 PM UTC

tdavis wrote: post #26

mikeryan wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of agree but to the article's credit it does filter for voicemail. To me it seems one option would be to remove the recent dot after viewing a voicemail. That being said I think these two systems are independent of each other, ie there's nothing to link the voicemail to a recent call (seems the recent call is a "client" side action as opposed to the voicemail which is "server" side action). Without some sort o…

That wouldn't matter. After a voicemail is received, compare its attributes to recently missed calls. If there was a missed call from the same number that left the voicemail, chances are good the recent highlight can be removed.

"chances are good" is a slippery slope.

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

#29

Post by teej » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 10:39 PM UTC

mikeryan wrote: post #21

teej wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You seem to be picking nits. The _only_ time its telling you of an absence of a voicemail is when it's a 1.

99% of the time, that red dot is either a 1 or a 2 on my phone.

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

#30

Post by jlees » Tue, Jul 28, 2009, 11:21 PM UTC

mikeryan wrote: post #21

teej wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You seem to be picking nits. The _only_ time its telling you of an absence of a voicemail is when it's a 1.

Not always. I have a weird bug with my iPhone where I'll receive voicemails, but the phone itself doesn't ring - others have reported this too (whether it's an O2 UK problem or what, I don't know).

Thus it's actually really useful for me to know if I have a missed call or a voicemail that never rang through. It also confuses the hell out of a system that'd try to guess which missed call the voicemail belongs to...