Usability Study Says iPhone Users Commit More Text Entry Error
Here's how the study began, according to User Centric Inc.'s press release:
60 participants…were asked to enter specific text messages and complete several mobile device tasks. Twenty of these participants were iPhone owners who owned their phones for at least one month. Twenty more participants were owners of traditional hard-key QWERTY phones and another twenty were owners of numeric phones who used the "multi-tap" method of text entry.
All three groups were then asked to switch places, with all three groups trying out the three different categories mentioned above (aside from the participants' own phones, test Blackberries and Samsung E300s were available). I'll let the study's headlines speak for themselves:
- "iPhone and Hard-Key QWERTY Texting Was Equally Rapid, but iPhone Owners Made More Errors"
- "Numeric Phone Owners Texted More Accurately on Unfamiliar QWERTY Phone than Unfamiliar iPhone"
- "Detailed Analysis Points to Common User Errors on iPhone Keyboard"
- "iPhone May Not be Suitable for Heavy Text Use"
Obviously, iPhone fans wouldn't take this sitting, especially when the multi-touch interface is supposed to cure world hunger and make good coffee. I'm exaggerating of course, but I'm sure User Centric came out with a FAQ on the study to answer all the inquiries, accusations, and questions they've surely received.
Jason Long
November 15th, 2007 at 11:47 am #
I’m not an iPhone owner, but I’m curious as to whether or not there is any audible feedback when the keys are pressed. If not, might this be a way of compensating for the lack of tactile feedback?
Rico
November 15th, 2007 at 5:23 pm #
That’s one way to compensate. But what I really want to see on touch screens is that technology that uses electromagnetic pulses to provide artificial tactile feedback for the user.