Modern vehicles are simple and easy to use. Why aren’t mobile devices the same?
I’ve gone through all the major brands and both Apple and Android operating systems – and my Zenfone 2 is the best phone I’ve used yet. It’s still junk.
It’s poorly engineered, relatively unresponsive to my needs, frustrating and difficult to use. The real problem, however, is that this criticism isn’t limited to my Zenfone: it’s true of all cellular telephone technology.
In the early 80’s I spent $700 on a brand-new Motorola analog cell phone that was the size and weight of a brick. Over the years, I’ve seen that brick evolve into smaller and smaller flip phones and handhelds. These new styles did away with rubber duck antennas, keypads and the batteries that weighed more than the phone itself.
As far as energy management goes, cell phone evolution has been a great success. That’s just fine, but the trouble comes with the consideration of how well these phones work and whether they do what I need them to do. On this count, they fail. Miserably.
When I rent a car at an airport, I don’t have to ask the attendant how it operates, read a manual or consult a website. I just turn the key and go. The simplicity and standardization of automotive technology are what make it brilliant. Whether it’s a Ferrari or an F-150, I can get in and with minimal or no training and operate the machine properly so it transports me to where I want to go.
This phone, like all the others, fails the simplicity test as well as the functionality test on multiple levels. Just look at its form. It’s smooth and shaped like a worn bar of soap, but if I drop it on a hard surface from standard working height, it can and will break.
The solution? A relatively expensive aftermarket armored case that the phone manufacturers can’t or won’t build into the original design.
To access the keypad to make a simple call, I have to make seven keystrokes. There’s no one-touch button to retrieve my voicemail. There’s still no simple way to eliminate passwords, amalgamate duplicated listings in my contacts or sync with my other devices.
I know many of you will disagree, especially those of you in your 20’s. Try thinking about it this way. If you were to measure the amount of time cumulatively that younger generations have spent playing with their smartphones and training themselves to use these devices efficiently and effectively, then bill that time at minimum wage, the number would be so high that nobody under the age of 40 could even afford a cell phone.
The fact is, engineers and software developers build advanced features in each generation of smartphones. They know that the vast majority of users will never use these features or even understand them. They also know that the primary user group in the youthful demographic will pay top dollar for these unused and useless features just to say that they have them.
Ironically, my demographic has disposable income and really wants a smartphone that lets the users handle incoming and outgoing phone calls, messages and email with minimal hassle.
Such a phone simply doesn’t exist. Not from Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, not from anyone.
Here’s a simple test that engineers ought to consider when designing phones. Take a Bell System touch-tone desktop telephone circa 1975 and pair it with a cassette tape-driven answering machine of the same vintage. Check how easy it is to operate. The user of a new phone with more computing power than an Apollo command module should be able to place and receive calls as well as retrieve messages with the same number of keystrokes or fewer than was possible with systems now 40 years old.
I learned to drive in a 1971 Datsun 1200. To start that car, I had to gently squeeze the accelerator pedal to the floor twice, pull the dashboard-mounted choke knob out completely, press the accelerator pedal one-quarter, press in the clutch and turn the ignition key. When the engine started, I had to push the choke knob in approximately half an inch until the temperature gauge showed some engine temperature. Then I pushed the choke knob in all the way. If the engine was hot, it was started with one accelerator pedal pump and no choke. In my Infiniti G35 today, I just turn the key. Far fewer steps and less expertise needed on my part.
That’s advanced engineering: start simple and make it simpler. My guess is that the cell phone development community is going to need some gray hair before that message sinks in.
