The iPhone is "cool." The cool user interface, the great web browser, and the smooth finish makes the geek in me swoon. But, a recent study by User Centric shows that email-oriented users smartphone users, like me, should just say no.
"It's very clear," said Gavin Lew, User Centric's managing director, in an Information Week interview. "Business users, people who use email a lot, will take a tremendous performance hit. Even with all the nice features."
User Centric performed a detailed study and asked 60 participants who were asked to enter specific text messages and complete several mobile device tasks on an iPod. The tests, which were done in one-on-one sessions, lasted 75 minutes for each person. (Details are in the press release.)
The testers concluded that iPhone and QWERTY messaging was equally rapid, and both were faster than 12-key phones using the multi-tap method. However, iPhone owners made significantly more errors -- 5.6 errors per message compared to 2.1 for QWERTY owners.
User Centric specifically mentioned the high "false alarm" rate. A false alarm for a given letter is said to have occurred if a participant meant to press ‘W’ and instead pressed ‘Q’. False alarms are relevant because they increase the time used to enter and correct a text message.
"Apple could space out the keyboard (to reduce the problem)," said Lew. “The iPhone is a great switch from a numeric phone. But if you’re switching from a hard-key QWERTY phone, try the iPhone in the store first.”
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