News

The One Button iPhone - A Grand Experiment

Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 4:50 PM - by

People in the field of Human Computer Interaction have known for a long time that pocket-sized, wireless computers were coming. The question has been what's the best way to interact with such a device. Apple's design focuses on viewing and touching, but not the tactile keyboard. The success of the iPhone may hinge on that decision, according to the Seattle Times on Monday.

The iPod introduced the era of the minimalist interface, replacing option buttons with scrolling and finger sliding. Now, Human Computer Interface (HCI) experts, while happy to see some of their popular ideas for a touch screen commercialized, are still wondering if Apple chose the best way to interact with a pocket computer, mobile phone and iPod combo.

"The question is, will people mind not having usable buttons?" James Landay, an HCI expert at the University of Washington said. "I think that's a big issue."

Another question is whether Apple's design decision was 100 percent based on the best way to interact with such a device or whether it was influenced by Apple's desire to sell content on the device. That's a subtle shift from the primary usage of a mobile phone.

Scott Klemmer is a professor and co-director of the HCI Group at Stanford. He thinks the lack of a "tactile input device" will be the iPhone's Achilles' heel. "Design is fundamentally about choice and making tough decisions," Mr. Klemmer said. "What's interesting to me with the iPhone is Apple has privileged the viewing experience over the text input experience."

That naturally makes the iPhone a killer platform for media, but makes it less useful for people who are accustomed to text messaging.


Apple iPhone Welcome Video

iPO notes that, to answer that objection, Apple recentlly published an iPhone welcome video showing how to type with two thumbs (15m01s into the video), BlackBerry style. "In about a week, you'll be typing faster on an iPhone than any other small keyboard," Apple said.

Finally, Apple has the unique ability to show us new ways of thinking and nourish the popularity. In sense, asking if the lack of a tactile keyboard is a weakness of the iPhone may be like the days when we asked if the lack of a 3.5-inch floppy disk was a killer weakness of the original iMac.

10 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

+ show options

Your current settings, click to change: Sort Oldest First, Show Guest Posts, Hide Community Stats

A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:55 pm

I think it is pretty obvious that some people will simply hate it regardless, others will probably think it is great. Then again, I remember a lot of controversy about thumb keyboards and how "horrible" they were going to be. They seem to have caught on for the most part so it seems. So it is certainly too early to count the touch screen keyboard out!

Quote this post ↓

gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2001 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:57 pm

Something that I've not seen mentioned very much is that the iPhone uses a "smart" keyboard, with type-ahead and automatic correction. That could improve the interface quite a bit.

Quote this post ↓

LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3462 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:11 pm

Quote
Scott Klemmer wrote:
What's interesting to me with the iPhone is Apple has privileged the viewing experience over the text input experience."
Privileged? I hate it when people verb nouns. Especially when they do it as badly and as incorrectly as that! If only he had said "prioritised"... And what's with "experience"? There would be no loss in comprehension if "the ... experience" hadn't been used at all.

Shudder.

Quote this post ↓

daemon said:

member since 17 May 2007 with 305 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:54 pm

Quote
LaurieF wrote:
Quote
Scott Klemmer wrote:
What's interesting to me with the iPhone is Apple has privileged the viewing experience over the text input experience."
Privileged? I hate it when people verb nouns. Especially when they do it as badly and as incorrectly as that! If only he had said "prioritised"... And what's with "experience" There would be no loss in comprehension if "the ... experience" hadn't been used at all.

Shudder.

Relax you crazy Kiwi, you'll start convincing everyone yer a Grammar Nazi otherwise.

http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20051023.html

Quote this post ↓

geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1661 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:15 pm

The idea of a glass touch interface with buttons and controls that change according to what the user is doing is so Star Trek. For that reason alone I suspect it has a leg up with the early adopters.

Quote this post ↓

iJack said:

member since 13 Jun 2001 with 254 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:13 pm

Quote
daemon wrote:
Relax you crazy Kiwi, you'll start convincing everyone yer a Grammar Nazi otherwise.

I'm with the Krazy Kiwi - quit screwing wid da language. Giddit?

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:51 am

Quote
LaurieF wrote:
Quote
Scott Klemmer wrote:
What's interesting to me with the iPhone is Apple has privileged the viewing experience over the text input experience."
Privileged? I hate it when people verb nouns. Especially when they do it as badly and as incorrectly as that! If only he had said "prioritised"... And what's with "experience"? There would be no loss in comprehension if "the ... experience" hadn't been used at all.

Shudder.

Noun? I hate when people don't know how to use a dictionary.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=privileged

–verb (used with object)

8. to grant a privilege to.

9. to exempt (usually fol. by from).

10. to authorize or license (something otherwise forbidden).

BTW, privileged is not just a noun and a verb, it's also and adjective.

You're only correct grammar when you're actually correct.

Quote this post ↓

gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2001 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:17 am

Quote
Anonymous wrote:

BTW, privileged is not just a noun and a verb, it's also and adjective.

You're only correct grammar when you're actually correct.

[Emphasis added]

People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones.

While the Guest was correct about privileged, he/she then proceeded to make at least two errors himself/herself. If one is going to correct someone else's grammar or spelling, one should be very careful not to make errors oneself.

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:37 pm

Actually, dude, that was the entire point. I even typed it up in word to make sure that I was getting it wrong. The green squiglies... I wasn't trying to be correct, I was trying to show the grammar police how stupid he was. I'm not good a grammar, but I do know how easy it is to lookup a definition.

Quote this post ↓

LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3462 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:11 pm

OK, I agree, "privilege" can be used as a verb. I don't like it, but neither I nor anyone else makes the rules. That notwithstanding, Klemmer still used it incorrectly: the viewing experience [sic] has not been put into a privileged position over the (gulp) text input experience. "Text input" isn't looking up at "viewing experience" and saying, "Wow - I wish I was as important as you.

The whole point of being a pedant, in my not-at-all humble opinion, is to show how bad usage makes the reading experience difficult. (That was irony, by the way). This writer is typical of those who use jargon and sesquipedalian words to stretch out content to cover as much screen space as possible.

In the same article, James Landay said almost the same thing as Scott Klemmer: "The question is, will people mind not having usable buttons? I think that's a big issue." Different words, same meaning, clear and concise.

Quote this post ↓

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.


Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.