Battling My Smart Phone

I’m preparing a conference session about how rich interactivity changes UX methods, processes, and best practices. I thought I’d be on top of it all, but then I got a new smart phone. It’s a Samsung Galaxy S and I like it a lot, especially that it runs on Android. Being a state-of-the-art smart phone it has advanced touch features and rich interactivity.

I didn’t read the manual. Setting up the basics, installing some apps, all that stuff was straight forward. Until I got the first call. The ringer goes off. Among other things, I see a green and a red button. I instinctively tap on the green button on the left side of the display, because I figure green means “go” and buttons are meant to be tapped. As a reaction the red button on the other side starts to move, first out to the right and then back in. So since the phone tried so hard to draw my attention to the red button – and by that time I didn’t know what I was doing anymore anyways – I started to tap on the red button. Whatever it takes to just answer the call. Now the green button started dancing. Long story short, the call went to the voicemail, I called back and that was it. Same story for the next two times somebody called me.

 

 

I got pretty depressed because I was unable to use the most basic function of my phone. Rather than taking this challenge on systematically by calling myself and doing any possible interaction with the phone that my body would allow, I asked my son to pick up the next call I received. He’s Generation Z with black belts in Nintendo, Wii and what not.  He couldn’t figure it out either. Because of the voicemail you don’t get much time to try different things out.

I don’t remember how I found out, but I learned that I have to slide the green button inwards towards the center of the screen. Makes sense since this gesture combines unlocking the screen and answering at the same time. I then also realized that this green button sits on another UI element that seems to point inwards in the same direction you’re supposed to slide it. Oh, and there was a little, discrete arrow pointing in that direction, too. Makes all sense, but under the time pressure to answer the call, I didn’t look at the subtleties but focused on what I considered the key target UI element: the green button. I’m still not sure why the red button does all the crazy dancing when I tap the green one. 

Check out this 12 seconds video that shows the experience!

I’m still puzzled by this design, but here are some initial thoughts on what could be done to make this a more straight forward user experience:

• Don’t rely on established UI elements like buttons and use them in a way that breaks their metaphor. You click/press/tap a button – you don’t slide it.
• Make the primary action the most accessible one and distinct from all the other things being shown on the display. The primary action in this context is answering the call.
• Instead of animating the wrong (red) button upon tapping the right one (green), animate the green button even before the user taps on it. Demonstrate how it should slide inwards.
• Avoid making your users feel like complete idiots