Tag Archives: usability

Sibling Smartphones

Posted on by under prop 8, tech, usability

I’m about to upgrade my original Motorola Droid to a Droid3 (which will hopefully arrive tomorrow). I use both an iPhone4 and Motorola Droid and recently commented on an email list that that they complement each other.

droid, iphone4

Droid and iPhone4 complement each other

I’ve ended up using two smartphones because of my work. My company does usability testing for iPhone, iPad and Android apps (as well as web sites and web apps).  For my work, when I’m watching people use a mobile app and interviewing them and videorecording what they’re doing on the smartphone or tablet, it’s much easier to videorecord the screen of an Android device compared with the screen of an iDevice (probably because the screen of iDevices are so bright).

If I have to choose just one smartphone to put in my pocket, I usually choose based on where I’m going and what I’m doing:

  • If I’m travelling and need lots of apps for mapping and finding things, as well as airline apps for checking in and finding a gate, I use the iPhone.
  • If it’s my daily life of parenting and working and commuting on MUNI/Caltrain and communicating with people, I use the Droid.
  • If I’m going to take a lot of photos or videos, I use the iPhone.
  • If I’m going to do a lot of writing (even if just a lot of texting), I use the Droid.
  • If I want to play Plants v Zombies, I can only play that on the iPhone (it won’t run on my Droid1 but I’m hoping it will on my new Droid3 tomorrow!)

The original Motorola Droid:

  • It does better multitasking than the iPhone and I can keep more things running at the same time.
  • It works well as a phone since Verizon has more coverage than AT&T in San Francisco (less of an issue now with iPhone and Verizon)
  • The physical keyboard makes it much easier for me to type a lot (I miss the keyboard on the Treo – it was one of the easiest to use keyboards I’ve ever used on a smartphone. I could type on the Treo keyboard without looking at it)
  • The response time seems, to me, much faster for everything compared with iPhone4
  • It’s more transparent and I can always see what an app is accessing and find and kill any running processes
  • One of the biggest learning curves I had, in 2009, when I first got the Droid, was figuring out how to make my battery last all day. The power widget became my best friend.
  • The widgets are awesome. I love the power widget for easily toggling, right on the “desktop,” the settings for wi-fi and bluetooth and GPSand sync and brightness without going all the way into the settings
  • The screen is not as pretty and bright as the iPhone – it’s duller on the Droid, but that means it’s easier to use clandestinely in the dark and easier to video record how someone is using it
  • It’s not as easy to backup as the iPhone, but it’s easier to get data on and off the Droid since you just mount it as an external drive on any computer. That’s more flexible and manageable than the iPhone’s requirement to handshake with iTunes.
  • It’s super difficult to sync contacts/calendar/mail unless you’re syncing with google so I just gave up on some of my distrust of google and sync it all there
  • The animated wallpapers amuse me (and drain the battery)
  • MUNI Alerts is by far my favorite and most used app (I ride public transportation a lot in San Francisco). It loads much more quickly than Routesy on the iPhone and time is of the essence when getting to a bus or streetcar.
  • I love love love the Kindle app because I can read the same book between Droid, iPhone, iPad and keep track of bookmarks in the cloud
  • I also like using the Evernote and Dropbox and WordPress and Google Docs and Netflix apps between Droid, iPhone, iPad
  • It’s much easier to take a photo with the physical button on the side of the Droid (compared with trying to tap something on the screen on the iPhone) — particularly if you’re holding the phone with an outstretched arm
  • The apps are easier to get. Many of the iPhone apps require a wi-fi connection to download and then sometimes want to sync with a computer.
  • When I was waiting at city hall in the summer of 2010, waiting for a prop8 decision to come from fed court, waiting with friends who hoped to get married (then couldn’t), I looked for a piano app for iPhone or Droid so I could play the wedding march for them and other couples.  I couldn’t get an app for iPhone — none of them could be downloaded over a 3g connection, they all wanted wi-fi.  I did find an app for Android and successfully tapped out the wedding march.
  • I can easily tether my Droid and have been able to for quite a while. It wasn’t and still isn’t as easy to tether an iPhone.
  • It used to be that popular/major apps (or maybe just the ones that intrigue me) almost always came out for iPhone before they did for Android. Now, in 2011, some apps come out for Android first.

The iPhone4:

  • I love the screen and the games.  It’s a bright gorgeous screen.
  • I dislike that I can’t dim the screen enough. The lowest brightness setting isn’t low enough at night in the dark.
  • I like the front facing camera and I use it a lot, sometimes just to see if there’s any lunch left between my two front teeth.
  • It’s much easier to sync/backup than Droid since it’s a closed system but I dislike that you have to sync everything in order to backup, particularly for iBooks books.
  • I dislike that iBooks books can only be read on two of my devices.
  • There’s more stuff for my kid to play with on the iPhone than on the Droid. There are probably 70 or 80 games on my iPhone for my kid compared with 7 or 8 on my Droid.
  • I hate the touchscreen for typing but I’ve gotten better at it. Last winter I used Echo Design’s gloves and tested them on iPhone and Droid for typing in cold weather without taking off gloves. It was easier to use the iPhone with gloves than the Droid (can’t type on physical hardware keyboard with gloves)
  • I manage all of my music via iTunes and it’s easier to get music onto the iPhone than onto the Droid
  • I pay a lot to AT&T for service that is rarely available at my home or the other places I work/wander around San Francisco. I usually just keep it in airport mode with wi-fi on. Oddly enough I noticed that the San Francisco Chronicle building has a strong AT&T signal and practically no Verizon signal.
  • I have a general impression that some apps on iPhone are more elegant than any apps on Droid. I find Droid apps tend to be more buggy than iPhone apps, in general.
  • I use an app called Sit or Squat a lot to find a bathroom when I’m out and about.  I don’t know of a similar app for Android.
  • Foursquare, when I use it, seems to find places nearby more quickly on the iPhone than on my Droid. That might just be a problem with the GPS service turning off/on/off/on on my Droid.
  • Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” apps are my new favorites and they don’t exist for Android.

Missing Home

Posted on by under usability

I’ve been in Texas working on a project.  I’ve spent most of my time here either (a) in a windowless conference room with beige-grey blank walls or (b) driving in circles on huge tall freeways.  What’s up with the sky-high overpasses?  Are they expecting even more roads or are trucks here just a lot taller than other trucks?

I really enjoyed the project that I came here for (despite the work space) – usability research and identifying gaps and balances between design and usage.  Doing research is one of my favorite parts of my job.  After interviewing 20 people, I encountered the usual quota of characters:

  • The super chatty
  • The arrogant
  • The quiet
  • The obnoxiously flirty
  • The shy sweet smart
  • The overly-perfumed-cologned
  • The luddite
  • The snarky
  • The funny office sign – an engraved plaque on a computer “Please don’t touch the screen”

I’m a bit grouchy at this point. I miss my wife and daughter.  Last night my daughter screamed “I want my mommy” (I’m her mommy, my wife is her momma) and that just about killed me.  I miss being home.

P.S. Why is Rachel Maddow on at 10pm in Austin but not til 11pm in San Francisco? I’d watch her more often but 11pm is usually too late for my working parent life.  There’s an ad about sexual predators “Exploiting A Minor is a Major Offense” on the Rachel Maddow show here in Austin?  That stinks of the hateful lie  that gays recruit children.  Or maybe it’s not quite that targeted but it raised my radar.  I’m cranky.

Shutterfly lost me with their site “upgrade”

Posted on by under usability

I’m fond of Shutterfly because it’s Mac-friendly and usually easy to use and I don’t usually run into bugs on it.  I primarily use it to print photos and to make photobooks and cards.

Today Shutterfly completed frustrated and annoyed me – they removed Search! I don’t know when they removed it – I just know it was there the last time I looked for it.

Recently I uploaded 600+ photos to my Shutterfly account with the plan to print all of them, index them in an album by filename and then be able to easily (I thought) go back to Shutterfly, search for a photo by filename, and print muliple copies of specific photos.  I think it’s easier to browse through and compare 600+ photos when they’re printed in an album.  It’s more difficult, I think, to browse and compare that many photos in a web browser.

After I uploaded the photos I couldn’t find the search/find to search my photos as I had done in the past.

Shutterfly’s help section indicates that they have a “Find” feature to search the photos in your account by date, by filename, and so on.  Their help FAQ has a question “How can I find specific pictures?” and answers the question with this:

I searched the site for help for how to find my photos by filename and finally sent a request to their customer service.  I wrote:

I’d like to search the photos in my account by filename, and, for example, find the photo with filename IMG_2868.jpg

When looking at “My Pictures” the only search option is to search the web site. The help section suggests that there is a Find feature at the top of the page but I don’t see it. I took a screenshot of what’s at the top of the page when I’m viewing my albums and pictures — and I’ve attached it to this question

Could you please tell me where, in this screenshot, is the Find icon referenced below?

Their customer service replied really quickly (within 7 hours) with this:

The find feature you mention is not one that we currently have available. We may offer it in the future, but have no immediate plans of doing so. We have removed this feature from our website during our recent upgrade and this feature is no longer available. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Please let us know if we can offer any additional assistance.

At the top of Shutterfly’s customer service email there’s a link to respond:

I clicked on the link and got this page:

I entered my email address and name and got this (argh!)

Now I’m going to do the tedious task of putting all of those 600+ photos on a different photo web site where I can manage and search them and print multiple copies as needed.  Snapfish doesn’t have this functionality, but Kodak Gallery does.

Here’s Kodak Gallery’s option to search your albums for specific photos:

Kodak Gallery also has an iPhoto plugin so that meets my Mac-friendly needs.  I tested Kodak Gallery’s “search album” functionality and it worked just the way I needed it to – it found the photo by filename and then I could easily order prints and then search for another photo and order prints.

Then I discovered dotphoto which does what I need:

  1. Multiple upload options that work for Mac
  2. Search feature that can search filenames, titles, etc for photos in my albums
  3. 3×5 photo printing

Making Online Clothes/Shoes Buying Easier

Posted on by under usability

Boden‘s web site has a size filter tool that lets you ask/tell the web site to only show you clothes that are available in the sizes you want.  This is a step up from online clothing retail web sites that have advanced search capabilities to specify just one size.  Boden lets you select several sizes for all 4 of their categories (women, men, girls, boys) and also doesn’t require you to login or have an account to use this filtering tool.  There’s a small “My Sizes OFF | ON” link in the top right navigation that activates this tool:

Boden's Size Filter

This is a huge help for online browsing/puchasing – so many times web site users find something they want on a web site only to discover, a few clicks later, that it isn’t available in the size they want.  Just don’t show them (tease!) a product if it isn’t available in their size.  Of course, Zappo‘s also has the helpful option to “email me when my size is in stock,” but Zappo’s (and many other online retailers) only let you search by one size at a time.

Many people fall between sizes or sometimes buy one size up or down from their “regular” size.  It’s about time an online retailer recognized this with their browse/search/filter tools.

Kudos to Boden’s web site team for a super useful search/filter option!