Old folks need better UIs not special designs

Rating: Nobody buys ‘Keep-it-simple’ handsets
by Tony Dennis

At this time of year, it’s common to hear that
old chestnut – "Handsets are far too complicated these days. All I actually
want is something to make and receive calls with." Hence the operators
respond to this by commissioning handsets that boast unbelievable battery life
figures and sport very few buttons.
So, do people go out and purchase such
handsets in their thousands? It’s my firm belief that they don’t. I’d argue
that such handsets don’t sell well. It’s a UI problem not so much a design
problem.

Now I could be wrong, but I can’t find any
evidence to support the fact that simple handsets like the Jet from O2 and the
Raku-Raku handset, created by Fujitsu for NTT DoCoMo, broke any sales records.
Which you’d think they should have done if the public were to be believed.

I think the truth is that either the ‘keep-it-simple phone’ subscriber retains
his or her existing handset and doesn’t upgrade. Or such people eschew ’simple’
phones and opt for one of the latest handsets, anyway.

The reason is that nobody really wants to be seen with a handset that advertises
the fact that they’re a Luddite and technophobe who could possibly cope with
all the new-fangled facilities built into the current generation of mobile
phones.
So instead they acquire an advanced handset
and simply don’t use more than 15 per cent of the facilities it offers.

This isn’t a design problem really. Okay, so it doesn’t help if the screen is
miniscule – especially the second screen on a clamshell – and the keys are
tiny. Which means that the older generation need to get their specs out to see what is
happening.

I’d argue that many of these obstacles can be overcome by a good UI. How
difficult could it be to add a font size option to pre-set ‘profiles’? After
all, you can set specific ringtones for a specific task.
Personally, I’d like the UI design to go one
stage further. What we need to do is borrow from the PC world where you can
choose to look at abridged or ‘advanced’ menu options, depending on your skills
level.

Thus the same handset could offer three different skill-set levels: - Beginner,
Moderate, and Advanced. That way all of the features aimed at the business
executive would be hidden until you turned the ‘Advanced’ menu settings on.

There are probably answers to most of the problems I could outline but implementing them
with current UIs is either time consuming or tedious. Or both.

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