User Centered

It appears we never learn the lessons of the past.

So, like the rest of the known world, I thought it was cool to get a RAZR phone that I've had now for about 6 months or so. I've since come to the conclusion that the only thing I really like about it is the form factor/physical design of it (and I'm not the only one).

Phone comments aside, the most confusing thing about the phone is the PC software that you can purchase to go with it. The designers decided to duplicate the phone's appearance; they used the phone metaphor, which, back in the day (which you can pin down as being over 10 years ago) it was thought to be a good idea because people needed the familiarity making it easier to learn. But the problem with this notion was quite frankly, that model sucks for several reasons: because it carried over the SAME limitations as the real world, often it doesn't or can't accurately mimic the real world device and trying to emulate those real world interfaces with a mouse a keyboard is, at best, cumbersome.

This RAZR application is no different. None of the buttons make any sense when applied to this software application. I mean, think about it- if the buttons on the phone were sufficient, why would I even need software on the PC? (backgroud- this application is supposed to run along with the phone, not in place of it)

Of course that's not the case at all.. noooooo my friends. The PC software has all kinds of different functions. But since they make absolutely NO sense in this interface, there's this little "slide out" menu on the side with all these functions.

So, apart from the fact that there's no reason at all to limit the interface to the actual size of my phone, 90 percent of even that space is taken up just so I can dial number and place calls.. on my computer. Ummm. Anyway, almost every function you execute pulls up a real windows-type dialog or window after clicking.. it's just impossible with this interface to know what and where everything is.

Obvious: It's a windows application- treat it as such. There's no reason at all to mimic the look and feel of the phone, especially since you completely violate the mappings and functions of the real phone. So buttons I click on my phone are disabled in this software, or replaced with fake buttons- or they do something completely different (see other observations).

By my estimation and actual use, almost all useful functionality for this software is found in the slide out menu there that (of course) isn't at all related to the actual phone. These functions have strange icons that aren't consistent and are difficult to figure out.

Other observations:

• The "close" button for the application is not the red "off" button of the phone. Instead, it's the exact same looking icon at the bottom, but grey.
  
  
• The soft keys and the circular navigation keys don't do anything
  
  
• There are several new keys introduced here- The phone and the green circle appear to both be "call" functions, but the phone actually pull up the "call a contact" dialog box.
  
  
• There is a phone book icon there that isn't the same icon as the phone uses. This is the case for other icons as well. There are no less that three "envelope" icons visible. I know what they all are, but still- that's a bit much. The multimedia studio (the bells icon) launches what appears to be a completely different (and somewhat better designed) application that almost makes me completely forget that there is a RAZR phone on my desktop. I imagine most people spend the majority of time there getting/setting images and ringtones and the like that it almost warrants a stand alone application.
  

Update: If you're having technical issues with your phone, please check out:
a RAZR/Motorola support forum (here's one). If you have usability, interface, or user experience related comments, please feel free to share.


Nothing but glowing reviews all over the place for this phone. I bought it because my primary requirement was a small phone since I put it in my pocket. It is a great phone- lots of features that I’m sure you already know about. But here are my small gripes with it-

Issues:
1)The half second delay whenever I open the display. Often I find it has old information on it from the last time I opened the phone up. Like- if it’s set on “Loud” then (with the clamshell closed) I set it to vibrate, then flip open the clamshell later, I see it shows the “Loud” icon for a split second before it updates. Very silly looking

2)Bluetooth and sync- I still don’t know how I can sync with any contacts or backup. I guess I need to buy software to do this- that wasn’t what I thought when I bought it.. although I’m not surprised. However, I would have thought at a minimum I could plug the phone through USB and get the pictures off of it. Win XP cannot find any drivers though. So apart from a headset, it’s no good.

3)Speaking of the headset, I have to turn on bluetooth manually in order to use it. I guess that’s a good thing for security and battery life, but the phone gives me the impression that battery life will only last two seconds with BT turned on- so I manually turn on BT every time I want to use the headset which leads to dramatic underusage of the device. I’ve got the Motorola H820 (I think that’s what it is)- I also don’t like the way you turn it on/off. I hear the other headsets with the boom are better for that.

4)Even when I put some menu items like Bluetooth and audio settings using the soft buttons or the “main menu” I still have to dig through two or three more clicks/menus before I can activate the settings. Why can’t phone makers look at the tasks that people want to do with the dang
phones? Am I the only guy who wants one button access to switch from audible to vibrate? My first Nokia back in 97 did this quite well- you held the ”#” sign until it switch- and there was no audible confirmation of this which I liked (IIRC, it may have vibrated a bit when I switched.)

On the motorola the menu items (I’ve assigned “audio” to my left softkey) I have to select audio and usually two or three left or right clicks to get to the correct setting. I know you can also set the mode with the shell closed, but that’s a three or four button process too and that’s slightly more annoying because when you switch to an audible setting, you have to listen to the ringer volume. Look- I only want my phone to make noise when I have a call or a message of some sort. Be quite otherwise.

More:
Also- why can’t manufacturers make a phone that doesn’t have a stupid startup jingle when you turn it off or on? When the phone is in vibrate mode, it correctly does not make a noise (although I’ve read about phones that do!) why can’t this be an option that I can turn on or off? If you must insist on letting me know the phone is being turned on (even though I just pressed the button) can you please have a somewhat respectable notification? A standard beep perhaps? Why the little jingle?

Also- in somewhat contrast to the above paragraph- there on the RAZR, I don’t think there is quick enough feedback when I hit the power button. The keypad lights (I think) up- but in a lit room, you don’t see it. There is too long a delay from when you hold the button down from when you see the screen light up. This is worsened by the “hold down to power on” problem that I have. You never feel confident that you’ve held it down for three seconds unless you get feedback right away- so you hold it until you see the screen turn on. In addition, you hold it down probably a lot harder than you would normally to make sure you are in fact holding it down.