iPhone: ‘It’s the user experience, stupid’

I was tuned into the conference last year when it was “3GSM”, and there was alot of talk about “user experience” a year ago… before iPhone was a reality, and after most of the major device companies had been releasing UI’s after UI’s for some time.

It’s so much better illustrated now, the elements of a compelling user experience, and yet it’s not only hard for companies to produce that, it’s even hard, still, for users to define it. I think it’s essence includes how I’ve described Apple products for years…. great tools that feel like toys.

The iPhone is another undeniable example of this.

It is not just the UI that makes the difference, but the speed at which it responds.

I was at Barcelona and this Samsung chap proudly showed me his new generation touch-screen phone/PDA/whatever running on Windows Mobile. I shall not comment about the UI but the respond speed is so abysmal I gave up in less than 5 taps.

What makes the iPhone work, is not just the UI, but the surety and responsiveness that crosses the human psychological threshold such that the interface almost seem physical. When you roll the iPhone interface, it is almost as if it is a physical polygon rotating under your finger pressure.

That’s it. The windows mobile people simply don’t get it.

well basically i can see who is using windows and who is a mac user. and it really is simple…users don’t want to worry about how it works, they want it to work. mac people are users that create things because they don’t have to worry about how it works, windows users spend most of their time, trying to figure how to get their ms products to just work, let alone, do anything creative. i work at a college where monday morning is, let’s see what does not work this week, then i open my mac and finish my job while my co-workers sit and look at their screen.

Apple gets it. It’s that simple.

Well, thanks to the commenter who described me as “clueless”. I’m the Sarah Lipman quoted above, and just because the original report chose to take the angle that the panel was confounded doesn’t mean that we were!

We were 5 individuals coming from every level of the industry (from chipset manufacturing to interface design), all unanimous in agreeing that the user interface is driving factor for future mobile products, and that the Apple iPhone is a product that proves that point!

I trust that for the 300+ attendees, we were able to provide insight and helpful opinions as to ways that user experience might be enhanced in future products.

And yes, I do believe that users want to interact with their content, and that our job in the industry is to enable and empower that interaction, while “getting out of the [conscious] way”.

“scribblings of 6 year olds.”

damn you’re good I am 6 yo

Gads. If some of you commenters (like “If” aren’t going to bother with capitalizations or periods/commas, please refrain from responding! A spell checker would also be a nice touch. Trying to read whatever points you’re trying to make is like comprehend the scribblings of 6 year olds.

Want to produce mind boggling innovative products? Get a person like Steve to say to lousy products “this is crap”.

I remember the story of Steve getting into an elevator with an Apple executive. Talking to the chap about his work Steve got some unsatisfactory answers. When the doors opened the guy was already fired. Compared this to ex-Apple CEO Gil Amelio, apparently when he held meetings some VPs won’t even attend “they were too busy”, imagine someone trying that with Steve!

On the other hand Apple handsomely rewards competence, Jonathan Ive was made a VP and head of design although he was relatively young and Ron Johnson the architect of the very successful Apple Store concept (that has made Apple billions) cashed out stock options worth around 120 million. Apple success? Get a Steve, get rid of deadwood and reward success.

well I don’t think it boils down to only an interface I mean Apple has been making the most productive OS since the Macintosh and gave us some really out of this world products , so ahead of it’s times that only now we can really grasp the idea on how much of a visionary steve jobs is
and the designer team they have, and I am talking about the items that made it to the public there are hundreds more that didn’t .
Only when Apple got their marketing straight the company made huge progress and broke through
I think Apple had the ballls to follow up on some really mind blowing hardware and software that other companies only normally see as prototypes or fantasies.
After the success of the imac and ipod everything became a bit easier.
It’s a combination of UI, user experience, marketing , charisma and a bit of “luck” relatively speaking… because Apple chased after it’s luck for years until it finally came

apples design guidelines are published for all to see i the knowledgebase on their website the problem these “executives” are having is the conflict of applying their nefarious marketing schemesto the product they are designing for instance my razor phone when i open it defaults to the center button is that my address book ? no its the link for me to buy ringtones i have 2o press 3 clicks to get to an address as soon as my conteact is up this phone goes in the ocean and i get one that helps me make a call not helps them sell a service

Adobe makes and ships real world product millions use daily, so they are realistic. The others sound like corporate executives lacking “in-the-trench” product-shipping experience so they use big words that can hardly transfer to a real world product.

It was, is and will always be the User Interface. Apple has pioneered this area since its first Apple computer. Apple tries to get out of the way as much as possible, it tries to anticipate and let the users do their own work instead of getting in the way with gerzillion dialog boxes and key clicks and confusing icons on screen.

iPhone success is precisely the interface. I got a free “mid-end” Nokia with a tiny screen and poorly organized UI that requires me to click forever and still not know where things are located. iPhone has a flat pad and large icons and everything important is no more than three clicks away.

We do not need some “experts” to tell us that.

after reading the article I conclude the experts are clueless
congratulations for being so narrow minded
i suppose it’s due to years and years of working with microsoft windows, their brain are moldy and atrophied