Left Lane

Riots broke out in my head when I had to switch to a non-Nokia phone for the first time ever. I had never used a different type of phone before and I was scared. It turns out my fears were not unfounded.

About a year ago, I upgraded to a Nokia 3120. Unfortunately, a few months after I got it, the phone stopped connecting to the network. One phone down.

Because my home store is technically 500 miles away, I decided to buy a secondary phone. Once I got the old phone fixed or replaced, I thought, I’d sell it or donate it. I ventured out and got the Nokia 6800. It was the first generation of the phone that flips out into a full QWERTY keyboard. Man, I used that thing for everything. When I had a grocery list to write, I used it. When I needed to jot down how big my windows were to buy mini-blinds for them, I used it. I could send text messages with ease.

Not all was meant to last, however. Again, a few months into use, the speaker in the earpiece kept going in and out, so much so that I had to use the speakerphone option to make a call. So much for private conversations. Looks like another phone gone into the “donation” pile.

Frustrated, and needing a phone that would last more than a month, I went to the store again. Using male sounds and gestures that amounted to some grunts and pointing, somehow advice was exchanged and I decided on the phone I wanted. It was a flip phone by another company; my first one, and I was excited about it.

You’re thinking the phone broke on me, right? Not at all. In fact, the flip phone performed quite admirably. It was the user interface that annoyed me.

Text messaging was a pain. The space button was not in the same spot as it was on my old Nokias, and that confused me. In addition, adding punctuation, though not an easy task on any phone, was made more of a pain in the arse on the flip phone. There were pages and pages of punctuation marks that you had to scroll through in order to find the right one. Some were buried.

Adding contacts was not any easier. The option to save a contact to the SIM card instead of to the phone is nice, but not when you’re adding 50+ numbers. What a pain. Can’t we set up a default option and go with that?

Another thing with the contacts was having multiple numbers for one person. There was no option to have a primary number for each person, so whatever number was added first for that person would be on top of the list when you selected that person on the phone. First? That means if I add a friend’s home number first, then his cell phone number, whenever I click the green “call” button in the list of all contacts, it would automatically dial his house, and there is no option to change this unless you want to create a new entry entering the numbers in reverse order. Very annoying.

All in all, I think the user interface makes the phone. I’d rather have a phone with a good UI that I can use every day without any annoyances than a phone that doesn’t break. What does that say about usability? To me, it shows that cell phone user interfaces still have a long way to go.

Why did I describe the flip phone all in the past tense, you ask? Well, I finally got through and exchanged my broken 3120 for a new working one. I have switched back to the Nokia, and I don’t think I’m ever going back. The UI is vastly superior. You could say it is personal preference, but believe me, I spent enough time with the lackluster UI of the flip phone to know a good UI when I see one. Consider me a Nokia fan.

Posted in Gadgets and Hardware, Usability.