In My Opinion – The Biggest Usability Shortcoming of the iPhone

We’ve all been told that we should not use our cell phone while driving. However, much like knowing but ignoring the fact that smoking and drinking is bad for our health, some of us will continue to use phones while behind the wheel. As states continue to pass laws to limit cell phone usage while on the road, usability around using Bluetooth and other hands free dialing features becomes all the more important.

At this point, some of you are probably thinking, “Just don’t use a phone while you drive.” I’m all for using the phone as little as possible when on the road – if you have to, you should definitely use a hands-free system. I’m not advocating dialing and holding your phone while you drive. However, there may be times when you receive an emergency call on the highway and can’t pull over, or times when you simply want or need to make an urgent call. Regardless of what the law is, the overall usability of a phone should be to provide a simplistic experience around how users are actually using the device, as opposed to how they should use the device.

As one of the leading smart phones currently in the US market, I’m surprised Apple hasn’t given the iPhone a more befitting user experience in this area. Its revolutionary touch screen interface is without doubt, the building block for all things cool about the phone. However, in my opinion, the steps required to make a call are simply inefficient, to say the least.

The general steps required to make a call, assuming your phone screen is locked, are:

1. Touch menu button or power switch
2. Slide button to unlock screen
3. If you have a password lock to protect the security of your data, you will need to enter the correct pin before you unlock the screen

Here, your calling steps may vary. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s assume these high level paths:

Path A

1. Tap contacts icon to open your address book
2. Scroll through list and tap name
3. Tap the number of the user (i.e. home, cell, etc.)

Path B

1. Tap the phone icon to open the phone menu
2. Depending on which menu you were last in, you might be able to find and tap the name of the person you want to call (in favorites, recent, or contacts, for example), or you may have to tap to a different menu to find the person or to dial the number manually (in keypad)

Path C

1. Tap menu button twice to shortcut to the favorites list (if you set it up that way)
2. Tap name from favorites, or switch to other menus if recipient is not on the list

This is all fine and dandy when you’re not in the car and can devote your eyes and both of your hands to the phone. But, imagine performing these steps on the highway, especially step 2 if you have a passcode lock on your phone. Or, imagine simply trying to scroll through your address book to find the person you want to call. Needless to say, either of these tasks would require a bit of visual and tactile attention, the latter of which is also more challenging with a touch screen interface.

So what exactly is the iPhone missing from a calling perspective that would help alleviate these concerns?

Integrated voice dialing

• Sure, there are a few apps that do this for the iPhone, but this just adds an extra step to the calling flow because you’ll have to remember to launch the application when you drive. What the iPhone needs is an integrated voice command feature that allows you to utilize your Bluetooth receiver to make calls without having to manually do so with the phone interface. This would be less distracting and would bypass the many steps otherwise required to make a call. Many other phones have this feature, including several of the Nokias, Motorolas, and Samsungs I’ve owned in the past. These were not “smart phones”, either. In fact, my first Motorola phone I owned in high school had this feature.

More advanced Bluetooth headset calling features

• In addition to receiving and ending calls with Bluetooth headsets, build in the capability to allow dialing the last dialed number or to allow users to scroll through the recent calls list with the Bluetooth device controls. Again, this would potentially help lower the distraction that would come from operating the phone itself.

Dedicated car or hands free profile

• This feature would be especially useful for those of you that have enabled a passcode lock on your phones. Entering in a pin while driving on a touch screen interface without tactile feedback is simply not a very manageable task without taking your eyes off the road. It would also be inconvenient to go into your phone settings to manually change this preference back and forth every time you drive.

• A dedicated hands free profile could solve this issue. Having the option to customize this profile to, say, automatically remove passcode lock or to disable the screen standby feature (and perhaps display the screen on reduced brightness) would also simplify the steps for making calls. In addition, this would put to rest the previous remedy of switching security preferences back and forth.

The above features are just a few of the key recommendations that would help make the phone aspect of the iPhone more user friendly, especially during instances where you need to use the phone on the road. I’m not advocating using a phone while you drive, but the example of doing so merely helps to accentuate some of these usability issues. The iPhone really just needs some basic improvements to the phone aspect to improve overall usability when making calls.