Why a Nokia is easier to use than a Sony Ericsson
So. Regular readers will remember that I just got myself a Sony Ericsson K800i after a lifetime of Nokia devotion.
My wife just got a new Nokia 6300 and is ecstatic about it. I like my Sony Ericsson K800i very much because it looks good and feels good. But the interaction is a bit bonkers. The problem's caused by the core design of the hard and soft control keys.
Here's the keypad of the K800i.
It has 4 main control keys (outlined in red and blue, above) and a 5-way joystick.
Here's the keypad of the 6300.
It has 4 main control keys (red and blue, again) and a 5 way joystick. Just the same. So they should be equivalently easy to use and learn. Here's why they aren't.
The number one function of a phone is to make and receive phonecalls. (Revenue figures prove this, however hard the mobile operators wish otherwise.) And making a call requires two key actions: call and hang up.
The 6300 has two keys dedicated to these fundamental action actions - outlined in blue.
The k800i has two dedicate keys too, but they are dedicated to something else: undoing actions. There's a backspace key and a "go back" key.
So when someone calls me on my k800i - which key do I press? I have look at the screen and see. And when I want to hangup? I have to look again.
To hang up, you actually have to hit the right-hand key. But if the other party hangs up, it stops being the hang up button and turns into the menu button - because it's a soft key. So if, out of habit, you press what was the hang up button to finish your call, you suddenly find you've called up the main menu. Oh dear. (Luckily, there's a nice fixed "go back" button, and I can see why.)
Alan Kay, interaction designer extraordinaire, is famous for a key principle of interaction design: "Make simple things easy and difficult things possible." The simplest thing a phone can do is make a call. But Sony Erisson have made going back simple, and making a call complex. Ooops.
Still, some of this is a matter of getting used to things. My brother in law told me he's just got a Nokia N95 and he finds it difficult to use. He's missing his Samsung!
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May 22nd, 2007 at 9:13 am
In a previous job I had to do a lot of mobile phone benchmarking. One of the key functions of the screener was to find out what their brand allegiance was - i.e. what their last three handsets were and how long they owned them for.
We almost always found that, for nokia users in particular, preferred brand took on a strong halo effect. This was a few years ago, though.
We would typically screen for a wide range of brand allegiances to avoid skew.
April 6th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I'm quite amused by this article because I have a K800i too and for me it's best designed phone I have used, far better than any Nokia. I especially like the way you don't have to switch keys in long key press sequences to do what you want, which I've found you often have to do with other phones.
Harry's point about brand allegiance is interesting though: I've had two of these K800is and a K750i before that, so it's fair to say I have strong allegiance to the SE brand. In fact, I rarely look at any other phone. My girlfriend on the other hand doesn't get on at all well with my SE and has never owned anything but a Nokia.
April 6th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Thanks for the comment, Bruce.
Brand allegiance: possible. Habit: definitely. As Jared Spool pointed out in an amusing article once, if you wake up one morning and some well meaning person has moved all your towels to "more logical" places in your house, you'll be furious - simply because they are not where you are used to having them. The towels might indeed be in a better places. But just getting used to the change is an annoyance.
But still - the fact there there are no keys dedicated to calling or hanging up, and two keys dedicated to going back seems like a strange design decision. And even though I have now had the phone for a year, the design issue still persists. I no longer hang up calls because I know that doing so will almost certainly invoke the main menu. I rely on the other party to hang up. (Easy for them if they have a Nokia).
How about we split the difference: one fixed go-back button (instead of two) and one fixed call/hang-up button (instead of none)?