Sunday, February 18, 2007

Bad usability example

If you want to change the ring of the incoming call of mobilephone, which menu would u like to choose?
  • My phone
  • Organizer
  • Entertainment
  • Setup

My first choice was "Setup". When I tried to change the ring of my phone(Samsung, SPH-E3000), I searched all submenu in "Setup", finding out nothing I can do to change the ring. Then I tried to search "My phone", I also failed to change it. Next, I began to search "Setup" again, with the hope that I may missed some submenu in the first trial. Finally, I end up extremely exhausted with finding the function.

Some times later, my desire to find the ring changing function rised again. I searched all menus that I thought could content the function. At the end, I found out that the function is in the last menu that I would like to search, "Entertainment". The path is "Entertainment"--> "Music Box" --> "Bell". I was kind of angry with the menu structure design. It is so confusing and lack of usability. Eventhough I learned how to find the function this time, I am not sure how long can I keep it in my mind. The classification doesnt make sense to me at all.

I heard some people also complained their mobilephone is difficult to use because of menu structure. Now I feel that the user-friendly interface is more important than the product appearance to me. Without usability, no matter how pretty the product is, it can only be called craftwork, not a product.

http://www.phonesawa.co.kr/p_imgs/SPH-E3000.jpg

SamSung SPH-E3000

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well said.