Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric conducted a usability test with iPhone customers who purchased their iPhones on the first day of its US release. The goal of this study was to identify overall ease-of-use factors and general usability issues among motivated early adopters who had limited experience with the iPhone.
Six days after the iPhone was launched, User Centric tested the usability of the iPhone during 60-minute usability sessions with these iPhone customers. The participants, who had the same short-term exposure to their new iPhones, were asked to carry out the same set of tasks using their new iPhones. User Centric also asked participants to compare text entry on their iPhone with their prior mobile phones (which used multi-tap text entry because their old phones did not have QWERTY keypads).
This study represents the first in a series of longitudinal studies with iPhone users. These longitudinal studies will evaluate the long-term usability and user experience of the iPhone. This allowS User Centric to assess the usability of conventional and novel user tasks, including ease of Web browsing, use of the soft keyboard, visual voicemail, different types of text messaging, placing and receiving calls, and using dynamic map interfaces.
Test participants were recruited from iPhone customers who purchased their devices on June 29, 2007 in the Chicago metro area. Participants were required to bring their personal iPhones to the study as proof of ownership. None had used an iPhone prior to June 29. All participants were compensated for their time and none were employed, related to, or personally known to User Centric prior to this study.
Based on test data from these short-term iPhone users, we identified the following strengths and weaknesses in the iPhone’s user experience:
Major strengths of the iPhone’s user interface
• Participants found the Visual Voicemail feature to be intuitive and useful
• Participants compared text entry using their iPhone and their previous phones (which used multi-tap for text entry). Overall, participants found that text entry was much easier on the touchscreen soft-keyboard of the iPhone compared to standard multi-tap text entry.
• Most participants used the landscape (horizontal) view while searching for a website (The New York Times.) The horizontal soft keyboard was definitely preferred over the vertical keyboard orientation.
• Selecting and playing a song using both the vertical and horizontal views was easy for participants. Participants also commented that the ‘Cover Flow’ navigation feature was a very engaging feature.
• Making an outgoing call with the iPhone was easy for all participants.
• Participants also found that receiving a phone call on an iPhone while listening to music was seamless. They found the interruption of the music and transition to a call to be very smooth.
• Saving a number as a contact and recalling that contact for a phone call was straightforward.
• Answering a phone call while in SMS mode was also straightforward. Participants found it helpful to be taken immediately to their message after the call had concluded.
• Most participants found it easy to take a picture and email it from the iPhone.
Primary difficulties with the iPhone interface
• Participants uniformly found text entry SMS and email to be difficult. They were frustrated by the forced use the vertical keyboard and the lack of visibility for editing the middle of a word or sentence.
• Many participants found Google Maps difficult to use on the iPhone. They experienced issues with the fine-motor control required to pan accurately in different dimensions in Google Maps and predictably zoom in and out. It was unclear to participants how much they needed to adjust the size of their “pinch” gesture to zoom in and out with the control that they wanted.
• Participants were often frustrated with their Web browsing experience and hoped that this would improve dramatically with an upgrade in network capability. The lack of Flash and Java capabilities during Web browsing was considered a detriment to basic Web use.
• Finally, participants were surprised (and somewhat annoyed) to discover that horizontal text entry was available only in in the Safari browser.
As part of their sessions, participants were also asked to rate their first time usage of the iPhone for key tasks. This data will be used as just one of our baseline metrics for iPhone longitudinal studies.
http:// http://www.UserCentric.com/
Many thanks to C1 for the great link! That was one of the most reasoned and visionary explorations of what the iPhone REALLY means that I have read.
I marvel at mine every day, and I can’t wait for the MDN post that alerts us that the first software update/upgrade is available online.
This is going to be a hell of a ride.
Phrase of the day –
“douche nozzle”
-c
“…buyers’ remorese..”?
Is this a recognised medical condition?
“…will volume defects…”
Is this a recognised legal term?
@Matt
Thanks for correcting me… then shouldn’t be called Apple Maps?
When I grow up I want to be a troll
hhhhuuuuuuuuu
hhhuuuuuuuuuu
hhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuu
uuuuhhuuuuuuuu
scrub scrub scrub
Why the NYT web site? Geez!
@ChrissyOne – thanks for the link. I got some laughs out of it, too. “only Microsoft has experience with a User Interface”
“I just love a man with chubby digits!”
So do I.
That last post was not mine!! Some swine has just tried to usurp my name!!
@me it is chrissyOne who has the crush on me! Apple Juice on the rocks!
In fact almost everyone has a crush on me!!! Cider lovers, Apple Juice lovers, fruit juice lovers, jam lovers, jelly lovers, Apple turnover lovers, Apple Crumble lovers…..the sauciest of them all arew the Apple Sauce lovers!!!!
squish squish squish
I for one will be happy when people will go back to calling problems problems instead of the pussy sounding word “issues.”
While I’m at, a zero is not an “oh.” No such number.
Like calling night day.
Thank you, children.
Here are a few “problems” with the iphone:
1) No flash support
2) No Java support
3) 2 megapixel camera – When 5 megapixel cameras in phones are the standard.
4) Can’t use mp3 for ring tones. Guess Steve Jobs has to screw you for more money to change your ring tones. So much for a multimedia phone.
5) No 3rd party apps for the phone. Lets lock down the phone like everything else from Apple. Then Apple can overcharge for the simplest of applications.
6) Almost 1 in 10 iphones are defective. So much for Apple quality. There are many people blogging about this on the net.
7) AT&T stores are forcing people to purchase accessories they don’t need if they want to buy an iphone. Can you say extortion?
8) How do you wirelessly sync the iphone? So much for Bluetooth or wifi.
9) No video recording using the crappy 2 megapixel camera.
10) No microSD capability in the iphone. Only Apple can leave out the most ubiquitous way to save applications (that don’t exist on the iphone) or pictures.
11) Security flaws. This shouldn’t be a surprise since OSX is the swiss cheese of operating systems. There are several problems with safari on the iphone that leaves you wide open to attack.
12) Deep seepage problem that makes info transfered over client applications through Wi-Fi potentially public and a Bluetooth “denial of service” bug.
13) 3.5mm headphone jack doesn’t fit properly with anything that is 3.5mm. So much for adding your headset to this phone.
14) No “Home” or “Stop” button on the browser. Are we back to 1995 again?
15) No period or comma on the touchless keyboard. Guess you don’t need punctuation since the iphone isn’t going to be used for business purposes.
16) Can’t synchronize with corporate email accounts like the Blackberrry. Doesn’t anyone in Cupertino look at any other products but their own?
17) Built in email only allows one attachment at a time.
18) Javascript incompatibilities making it all but impossible to interact with many popular sites.
19) Activation sucks and many people were stuck with a busted phone and no way to easily get it fixed.
20) Battery issues. The iphone doesn’t last anywhere near as long as Apple advertises and recharging is broken on many iphones. Many batteries never charge to 100%.
All this and you get to pay $500 and get screwed with a 2 year plan that is expensive and slow. Sounds like a plan if you are an Apple fan boy but not for the rest of us that have real work to get done.
Ok, I’ll bite:
1) No flash support
It’s probably coming soon, though I hope it never does.
2) No Java support
Same as #1
3) 2 megapixel camera – When 5 megapixel cameras in phones are the standard.
5MP isn’t even the “standard” in cameras. Besides, it’s the optics stupid. Those 5MP camera phones are just eating data transfers when the pictures suck because of the lack of decent optics (what do you expect with something that needs to be so small.
4) Can’t use mp3 for ring tones. Guess Steve Jobs has to screw you for more money to change your ring tones. So much for a multimedia phone.
Try to keep up. You can now do this via 3rd party apps. You can also swap out system sounds.
5) No 3rd party apps for the phone. Lets lock down the phone like everything else from Apple. Then Apple can overcharge for the simplest of applications.
There are plenty of web apps, and see #4 above. Apple made a security/reliability decision here. It has yet to be played out (like all of the above).
6) Almost 1 in 10 iphones are defective. So much for Apple quality. There are many people blogging about this on the net.
So much for pulling numbers out of your ass. There’s a minor battery/charge bug that’s software related. Mine has it. It’s not that big of a deal, it improves over time, and will be fixed with a firmware update.
7) AT&T stores are forcing people to purchase accessories they don’t need if they want to buy an iphone. Can you say extortion?
So buy one from an Apple store, or ask to speak to a manager of the AT&T store. Heck, make a few clicks online and have one delivered to your home.
8) How do you wirelessly sync the iphone? So much for Bluetooth or wifi.
Have you ever moved 8GB over BlueTooth? The thought that people would ever use BT for mass synch was totally flawed from the beginning. WiFi, ya it’s faster, but if you’re in range of your computer, why not simply plug, charge and get 400mbs synch time? It’s just a matter of setting the phone in the dock as opposed to setting it on the desk and then clicking buttons on your computer.
9) No video recording using the crappy 2 megapixel camera.
Yes, this would be nice, especially if they included iChat AV.
continued
10) No microSD capability in the iphone. Only Apple can leave out the most ubiquitous way to save applications (that don’t exist on the iphone) or pictures.
SD makes sense on cameras because you aren’t charging the camera via USB and it doesn’t matter what data is on a card. If the iPhone had SD, it would still need internal storage in which case things get messy on where they are stored, plus there would be added size to the device.
11) Security flaws. This shouldn’t be a surprise since OSX is the swiss cheese of operating systems. There are several problems with safari on the iphone that leaves you wide open to attack.
Huh?
12) Deep seepage problem that makes info transfered over client applications through Wi-Fi potentially public and a Bluetooth “denial of service” bug.
Open WiFi is open WiFi, accept the risk or don’t use it. It’s not an iPhone specific issue. Same with Bluetooth, but at least that’s just a local/temp issue.
13) 3.5mm headphone jack doesn’t fit properly with anything that is 3.5mm. So much for adding your headset to this phone.
Actually it does work with many existing headphone jacks. It happened to work with all but one of mine. For those that don’t fit, there’s a cheap adapter. Of course, unlike any other phone, the iPhone works with like a bazillion devices that have iPod docks.
14) No “Home” or “Stop” button on the browser. Are we back to 1995 again?
You should try using the iPhone.
15) No period or comma on the touchless keyboard. Guess you don’t need punctuation since the iphone isn’t going to be used for business purposes.
No really, you should try using the iPhone. You sound like an idiot.
16) Can’t synchronize with corporate email accounts like the Blackberrry. Doesn’t anyone in Cupertino look at any other products but their own?
I have 3 email accounts on my iPhone. Yahoo, Gmail, and my company account which is a MS Exchange server.
17) Built in email only allows one attachment at a time.
Oh, ok.
18) Javascript incompatibilities making it all but impossible to interact with many popular sites.
Sure, but every site I need to use works just fine.
19) Activation sucks and many people were stuck with a busted phone and no way to easily get it fixed.
Activation is really cool and easy. Sure, there were problems with half a million people trying to do it all at once, but the issue may have been with companies being overwhelmed with release requests for their numbers, not an AT&T or iTunes issue. I got mine on day one and it took less time to activate than the industry average. Most are getting 3 minute activations now. My previous phone took over 24 hours. I guess by “no way of getting it fixed” you mean that walking back to the store and getting it swapped out doesn’t count (though all that was necessary was resetting the SIM).
20) Battery issues. The iphone doesn’t last anywhere near as long as Apple advertises and recharging is broken on many iphones. Many batteries never charge to 100%.
See above.
Bottom line is that while I had very high expectations for the iPhone, it’s an even better product than I imagined.
Thank-you Macslut for that great reply. Realist has problems and needs to be called out on the crap he posts. I love my iPhone and there is basically nothing I would change about it, and I have expected a lot from it. That is what I have heard from everyone who actually OWNS one.
@-
Macslut – you have proven yourself to be worse than a gay. You have proven yourself to be a blind indoctrinated brainwashed macfanboy with no grasp of reality – namely the obvious poor quality control of the iPhone. Besides the obvious volume and acknowledged battery issues:
1) No flash support – well whoopie for you hoping it never does arrive. I’m sure you are happy with the partial internet. Oh yeah, perhaps you need to be because the device was put on the generations-old EDGE network that is slower than the download speed of George Bush’s brain. In case you weren’t aware – that is very slow.
2)No Java support – same as #1 – except this re-emphasizes the retardedness of the over-hyped device.
3) Quality control of this device is laughable. Besides the “minor” battery issue – check out the fact that over 55% of those with the phone think the volume is defectively soft on the phone. Gizmodo surveyed thousands and even a major newspaper wrote a quick blurp on this. But of course you will blindly defend Apple because you drink Kool-Aid very easily you pathetic lamb.
4) No 3rd party apps – pathetic webpages don’t count as an app you moron. “Security” is a lame excuse from cultists for this glaring deficiency because there are obvious QA procedures that could be employed/approved for widget deployment.
5) I wouldn’t call OSX swiss cheese, but the reason its vulnerabilities haven’t been exploited is because its marketshare presence worldwide is smaller than your microphallus.
6) The headphone jack design defect is real you moron. No one should have to purchase a $10 “adaptor” just to use regular headphones in the device. Johnny Ives was too busy with a dick in his mouth when he sketched this out and thus screwed this one up. Not a big deal, but a design defect nonetheless. Again you will defend an Apple defect like you defend your Mongoloid child because you love the Kool-Aid!
7) As a “revolutionary device” it lacks MMS messaging, Instant messaging, to-do-lists, and even cut + paste functions or basic editing of Word docs! Phones half the price can do this and have 3G to boot!
I write this on my 3G Blackberry which I got at close to one tenth the price of the iPhone and it is faster AND has more capabilities! How does the Kool-Aid taste chump? Now that you have read this, you can go back to masturbating to Steve Jobs’ likeness on your wall.
Cheers!
@MDN,
can’t idiots like “The Truthbearer” be banned from here? The kind of sh*t he’s posting here (see above) really isn’t necessary and is very offensive. If ignorance is bliss, Truthbearer must be ecstatic.
@gzero
Oh yes, lets turn off free speech and the truth so you can live in your Apple induced fantasy land. Guess you like fascist countries with non-existent human rights standards like Dafur as vacation spots too. Can’t we put this idiot in charge?
I’ve never understood why anti-Apple people come and post on a site like this. I have no problem with them saying what they want but they should really do it somewhere else where it doesn’t bother those of us who want an logical and reasoned discussion. Not homophobic rantings and references to small pensises that undermine any validity to what they are saying.
I advise that nobody else rises to their bait. Ignore them and they will go away.
@James
supremely true.
MDN — USER REGISTRATION SYSTEM NOW.
I agree. Freedom of speech does not mean that MDN has to host your “fake but accurate” FUD, Realist and Truthbearer. You’ve worn out your welcome, and no-one really listens to nor cares what you say. You’re just taking up valuable screen space.
See Mac Realist – I have smoked out these Republican neo-fascists who would like to ban free speech. As I stated before, their philosphies are obviously akin to the criminal stupidities of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsefeld. These retards probably drank republican administration Kool-Aid as well. I have revealed the pathetic nobs for whom they are! A user registration system will not deter me and the gangs of many realists who don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Freeedooooooommmmmm!!!