Have you ever used an iPhone/iPod Touch (iDevice)? If you haven’t you should seriously consider trying one. Get your hands on the interaction. You’ll quickly notice the extensive use of animations and a clever set of interactive controls. For example the slide action required to unlock the iDevice is outstanding. The idea to require the user to slide a virtual switch to perform an action is smart for several obvious reasons, most notably the inherent opportunity for the user to cancel the action.
This slider switch is used in several different scenarios, however, if you have an iPhone one of these create a problem (or at the very least an annoyance). But the problem has a simple solution: inconsistency. Let me explain.
Slide to Cancel: Reversed slider switch to get noticed.
Normally the slider switch is used to confirm an action initiated on the iDevice itself, which is fine. The problem irises if the user changes the state of the device from a connected computer. Without touching the iDevice itself, the state of the unit has changed from sleep mode to eg. sync mode, however synchronization is cancelled with exactly the same physical action as when unlocking the iDevice. To be fair, the caption on the slider switch itself clearly explains the result of the action, however consistency in this case is still not optimal.
If the phone rings this annoyance becomes even more evident. When someone calls the iPhone lights up, showing the user who is calling. The user at this stage routinely expects that sliding will unlock the phone and answer the call, but while in sync mode the same action cancels synchronization and answers the call. As a heads up for the user, Apple should simply implement a reversed slider switch – on that slides from right to left – to cancel actions initiated from the computer. This inconsistency will cause the action to get noticed, thereby helping the user to avoid an accidental synchronization cancellation. Now the user will easier remember to restart synchronization after finishing the phone call, thereby avoiding the frustration of disconnecting the iPhone without the updated content.
This is of course not a big issue, but it is unnecessary. Inconsistency if used right, is the perfect solution to prevent routine and automated actions from causing frustrations. The iDevice is remarkably consistent by design, which isn’t always a good thing. There is nothing like a little inconsistency to grab the attention of the user.
Tags: Consistency, UI
Posted by Johan