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iPhone Design Decisions Showing Their Age

Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 1:30 PM - by

The iPhone comes very close to fulfilling our SciFi fantasies. Even so, some of the design decisions of the iPhone are already dated, according to Robert Fabricant, Creative Director of frog design on Monday.

There are five elements cited as design factors that seem to already date the iPhone.

1. Icons. "...this will probably turn out to be one of the most dated elements of the design, as the iPhone takes nostalgia to a new level with the YouTube TV icon, the shutter representation within the camera app, and the extremely annoying legal pad metaphor for the note-taking app." Mr. Fabricant observed.

2. Lists. The author felt that the hierarchical list usage in the Clock -> Timer function is superior and should have been more universally used. There is a disconnect between that kind of selection process and that used in the contacts list.

3. SMS. The arrival of an e-mail is no longer a personal "event." However, the arrival of an SMS message is. Apple seemed to put too much empahsis on e-mail.

4. Contacts. Rather than letting the user first select the contact, then decide how to contact them, the contacts list is only accessible via the Phone icon. It was deemed an odd, dated design decision.

5. RSS. People need to stay up with their blogs, and that means a superb RSS enable device. Mr. Fabricant thinks the Google gPhone will get this one right.

The Creative Director at frog design suspected that Apple may already be working on some of these issues, and change could come fast to the device thanks to its software update mechanism. Even so, the device seems to reflect Apple's "inability to grasp of some of the key trends shaping communications," Mr. Fabricant concluded.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1011 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:20 pm

Maybe five years from now, but considering probably less than 1% of the US population, and even less than that for the entire world, even knows what RSS is, that's a bit premature. Heck, SMS is STILL in the infancy stage with regards to adoption.

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jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 611 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:35 pm

Apple IS a "key trend shaping communications." I agree that, for instance, the choice of hiding contacts under phone is an odd one, but I wouldn't call it "dated." Call it bad, if you want, but it's not like it's gone "out of style." Of course, Mr. Fabricant (IF that is his real name!) wants to show that frog design is modern, hip, edgy, and, above all else, lowercase.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:49 pm

Not sure I agree with all of these, but number 4, the contacts is dead on. No smartphone buries the contacts application inside of the phone application, but on the iPhone its worse. The contacts is more of like a feature of the phone application rather than an application to itself (like video inside of the ipod). Also, that it is missing the ability to organize contacts into categories or groups is very poor. The contacts feature in the iPhone is definitely dated and behaves more like a junkie cellphone than true smartphone.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:39 pm

Heh. With a client list that includes Tupperware, TV Guide, Blockbuster, Titleist, and MTV, I'm not sure anyone from Frog Design...sorry frog design, should be calling anyone else "dated". Also, I note that among their clients are T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Microsoft Windows Mobile. The fact these competitors are clients - albeit for web design services - might have colored his thinking a tad. Didn't frog design once develop products for Apple, before they decided they could do it better inhouse? I think they were called FrogDesign back then.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:06 pm

The thing about ALL of these issues - and incidentally the crux of these astonishing new devices - is that they are software based and,as such, can easily be changed by updates!

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:14 pm

Guest wrote:
The thing about ALL of these issues - and incidentally the crux of these astonishing new devices - is that they are software based and,as such, can easily be changed by updates!

Can and will are completely different things. Software based issues are still issues, and continue to be issues until there is an available update. The ability to change something via software does me no good today, especially on a closed system like the iPhone. With the software issues in an open system, like Windows Mobile, users are not beholden to the decisions of the manufacturer and can turn to third parties for software solutions to their problems.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:14 pm

I think saying apple is inable to grap key trends is a bit of strech. It may very well be they are savig something for future upgraded or simply disagreee with his asertions. I for one dont give a crap about texting. never will. Not only that, i predict it will be all but forgotten with ten years.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:45 pm

SMS has been around longer than ten years already, so it's already lived longer than you think it will take to die. A significant and growing portion of college students these days never access their school email, not even once. They have grown up with unlimited text messaging packages being available and are fond of more immediate technologies like text and IM. I also disagree with the assertion that SMS is in its infancy. The technology is 15 years old (in terms of being publicly available). 620 billion SMS messages were sent just in Q1 this year, and carriers derive fully two-thirds of their data revenue from SMS. That number has actually been shrinking, as newer data technologies which actually are in their infancy in terms of adoption start to grow. There have definitely been reports of SMS's underlying design being weak to support the growing demands of text messaging. Of course the vastly insecure email architecture has not been updated in decades. Either way, while no one is quite predicting the death of email is already shown to be on the way out with respect to casual communication, and is getting less use than SMS is from the under 25 demo. Surveys show that they use email to communicate with older people who are less well adjusted to the newer technologies of SMS & IM. Email is definitely a more dated technology than SMS, and with the high margins involved with text, I don't expect it to go anywhere, even if SMS needs to be replaced as the underlying architecture.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:45 pm

Who is this person and why now is he looking for his 15 minutes of fame? Must have a light client load and time on his hands.

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DaiMac said:

member since 29 Jun 2001 with 952 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:01 pm

Anonymous wrote:
Didn't frog design once develop products for Apple, before they decided they could do it better inhouse? I think they were called FrogDesign back then.

I definitely remember a mockup of a "future" PowerPC mac done by them in an issue of MacWorld (early to mid 90s), they also worked with Apple in the pre-mac days (designed the IIc days), and with Jobs when he was at NeXT, according to a quick search at lowendmac.com, probably other products I'm just a bit too lazy to make an inventory of here.

Not saying I agree with the assessment, seems like FrogDesign is still pushing the NeXT/PrePowerPC Apple ideal of just pushing the curve and assuming sales/praise will follow, the "new" Apple Jobs has forged has obviously learned to innovate more simply, working with existing technology and features when necessary instead of always looking for a slightly better but proprietary solution: ADB, Apple Video, SCSI, need I go on?

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DeKU said:

member since 27 Jun 2001 with 536 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:36 am

it may be dated but thats why there are not on permanent buttons! thats the beauty of the iphone and what steve meant by a product that can evolve and its not set by its plastic keyboard. remember, its just software, everything could change within the next software updates just like the rest of the apple software has over time.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:48 am

Remember when Frog Design used to exclusively work for Apple in the early 80s? And for NeXT in the late 80s early 90s? Maybe they're just annoyed that they're not working for them anymore.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1917 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:10 am

Guest wrote:
A significant and growing portion of college students these days never access their school email, not even once.

Two points this 'old' guy would like to make.

When you get into the corporate or academic world IM is fine but unlike when you are in school, you need to have both a degree of formality and a paper trail in your official communication. E-mail has been accepted to give both. I don't see that with IM. It's fine for casual conversations but I don't ever expect to see anyone placing an order for a big buck item by IM.

I do use IM for a limited number of things through my desktop computer. I never use it with my phone. The reason is very simple. The keys are too small. The people who design phones, blackberries, and most other portable devices seem to have the hands from a thin 14 year old girl as their model. I look at these tiny chicklet keyboards and laugh. There is simply no way I could type on them at any reasonable rate. Start making keyboards for me, a 46 year old, 6"1" guy who lifts weights and I might use IM more. As it is, the only thing smaller than the keys is the lettering on the keys. On some devices I need a magnifying glass and my reading glasses to see the labels.

The split between who uses e-mail and who IMs is IMO not about old luddites who refuse to adopt new technologies. I think it's more about different types of communication needed at different ages, and bad product design. I am waiting to see what todays 15 to 25 year olds are using when they get to be 50.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:48 am

geoduck wrote:
It's fine for casual conversations but I don't ever expect to see anyone placing an order for a big buck item by IM.

True, but there are already people coming out with secure ways to pay via SMS. Then again, the point about IM was that it is used for casual communication, which is what the iPhone is for (remember all the people saying Apple is not trying to be the Blackberry, it doesn't meet all the needs of corporate users, etc.)

geoduck wrote:

I do use IM for a limited number of things through my desktop computer. I never use it with my phone. The reason is very simple. The keys are too small. The people who design phones, blackberries, and most other portable devices seem to have the hands from a thin 14 year old girl as their model. I look at these tiny chicklet keyboards and laugh. There is simply no way I could type on them at any reasonable rate.

Yeah, most people don't use IM on their phones, though I do only when I specifically need to use an IM service. For chatting on the phone, most people use SMS. But if you cannot type on a phone, then the whole Email vs. SMS on the phone question is moot to you.

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DaiMac said:

member since 29 Jun 2001 with 952 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:55 pm

Since you're still discussing the merits of text messaging, thought I'd share this clip (May not be suitable for work): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf5fQ8Q2_Xw

Pretty succinct, if crude, way of summarizing the value of text messaging, IMO.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:50 pm

Tiger wrote:
Heck, SMS is STILL in the infancy stage with regards to adoption.

There seems to be a different way of using your mobile in Europe compared to the USA.

Here in Belgium (and from personal experience) I would say that we use our phone more for text messaging than for actuale "phoning".

It can absolutely not be considered as being in its "infancy". Adoption is high across the board among the <45s.

And talking about financial transactions: I can pay my parking ticket by sms.

Another sign of the high and rising adoptation level.

WAP and other email connection ways have been pre-installed on even the most common and cheap mobiles for at least the last 3 years. I can not remember ever using it myself, or any of my friends our colleagues, except the ones that use smart phones. I can understand that email is a necessity and definitely so on the iPhone but I hope that Apple takes in account the importance of easy and quick text messaging in account for future software updates and the "iPhone nano".

Last comment: I don't know who frog is and I do not really care what his motives are. It is always nicer and more relevant to discuss the comments made, rather that imagining a macchavellian plot. In other words: don't shoot the messenger.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1917 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:49 pm

Guest wrote:
For chatting on the phone, most people use SMS. But if you cannot type on a phone, then the whole Email vs. SMS on the phone question is moot to you.

For chatting on the phone I use...my voice.

[/snark]

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:07 pm

geoduck wrote:
Guest wrote:
For chatting on the phone, most people use SMS. But if you cannot type on a phone, then the whole Email vs. SMS on the phone question is moot to you.

For chatting on the phone I use...my voice.

[/snark]

Which is not useful in many situations, places that are too loud to hear someone (such as a noisy bar, club or restaurant). Or places that restrict talking (such as a library or quiet car on a train). So while your snarky comment might have been humorous, it misses the mark. Beyond times & places where verbally chatting is not a possibility, there are times when given the choice a text message is preferable to voice. Such as giving an address for a place to meet. When you get near the destination, you do not need to chat again, just simply look at the text message again to confirm you have the right location.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Sep 20, 2007 5:12 pm

Because most of the people I talk to have their email accounts on their mobile phone, I only email them. It's really just like a SMS for me, now a days. I used to text, but I don't have a use for it any longer.

My 2Ñž.

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