The Bad Design I’ve picked today is the Sony Ericsson T630. My sister has one – it’s pretty old and dated, but was at one time really popular. I used it the other day to send my brother an SMS – and the system was ridiculously hard to use. Not the typing system – it seems the same as mine, but the number of steps and options you had to go through just to send your message.
User Reaction
I asked my sister about her phone – she admitted she wasn’t one to rely much on the handphone, as long as it served its purpose of calling and smsing. She understands why people find it difficult to use, and found it annoying too, at first, but after she did it several times, it became a habit. “You just had to do it! Not like I was going to change [my] phone, or anything. So until you mentioned it, it didn’t occur to me that it was troublesome.”
“It can be really annoying especially when I want to send an sms quickly, and the software is laggy, so I press the button several times when I want to send it without looking at it, and it really frustrates me when you find out your message hasn’t been sent because it’s slow. The only thing I learnt from it was to get used to it.
“I won’t change [my] phone until it’s old and dying and falling to pieces, and then maybe I’ll consider getting a new one.”
When asked about the brand, she said “strangely enough, I’m still a Sony-Ericsson convert/fan, despite Nokia being more ‘user-friendly’ and responds more quickly. The OS of the system is quite hassle-free – I find Nokia phones have to go through multiple menus before you get to what you want to do. The aesthetic design is also really appealing, compared to Nokia phones which have really ugly interfaces.”
Nokia’s have multiple menus? But your SMS system has multiple menus too!
“Oh, I’m talking about the phone overall. The SMS system, although annoying, has little effect on my overall impression of the brand.”
My Reflection of the Product
I have a Sony-Ericsson phone, the K310i, which is a comparatively newer model. The interface was still the same, and as I was used to it, it appeared easy to navigate. To plot the path to sending an SMS, it went from:
Envelope Icon > Text > Write New > [Type SMS] > Continue > Request Reply? Yes/No > Contacts> [Type Contact Name] > Select > [Number] > Select > Send
On my phone, it’s:
Envelope Icon > Text > [Type SMS] > Continue > [Select Contact from 'Recently Used Contacts' or 'Contact List'] > Send
I daresay there’s been quite a bit of improvement.
I’ve always liked Sony-Ericsson phones, primarily for their aesthetic design – both physically and of the interface. My OS is also quite a bit faster than my sister’s. My sister’s phone is slightly bulkier and heavier, but otherwise, they are quite similar.
Overall, I think her phone is a pretty decent phone, save for an annoying system. Thank goodness they’ve rectified it in later models.
