iPhone Study Finds Texting Slow Going
In what is sure to be a much touted study, Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric, Inc. found that it takes twice as long to send a message on the iPhone as on a standard cell phone.
In a study conducted in late July, User Centric, Inc. brought in 20 participants for a usability study of the iPhone. Of those 20, 10 owned a phone with a QWERTY keyboard, the other 10 participants use phones with numeric keyboards for their messaging. All of them were novice iPhone users, send on average 15 text messages a week, and they were also given six standardized texts to send on their regular phone and six to send on the iPhone.
During the study, the QWERTY users took nearly twice as long to send messages on the Apple-produced phone, and the multitap users saw no significant difference in time, but do tend to take nearly twice as long as QWERTY users on their normal phones.
What did the participants have to say about the iPhone when their tests were over?
- Most participants felt that their fingertips were too large for the iPhone’s touch keyboard.
- Most QWERTY phone users initially used the iPhone by holding it with both hands and typing with their two thumbs. However, by the end of the session, most had decided that it was easier for them to use one index finger to type.
- Over half of the participants stated that they would have preferred the feel of an actual key to the iPhone’s touch keypad.
- Most participants noticed that there was no tactile feedback on the iPhone keypad.
- Some mentioned that the feel of the key on conventional phones helps them locate the desired key without having to focus on the actual keypad.
In general, the standard phone users did not seem thrilled with the newest product from the Cupertino,CA based computer company, but somehow it seems unlikely this will put a dent in their sales.
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