As you may have read in one of my recent posts, I have become the owner of a brand new iPhone. This is the third Apple product that I have acquired (after my iPod Nano and MacBook), and there are some common elements that I have experienced with all of them. Obviously, there is the excellent design and craftsmanship. All three products feature beautiful lines and surfaces, and just generally lovely to look at. That is somewhat of a hallmark of Apple’s line of products!

iPhone Lessons and the User Experience

The other thing that was common to all three of the products was an exceptional user experience – specifically in terms of first contact. In this article, I would like to look at four lessons that I learned through my own initial experience with my new iPhone.

Before getting started, though, I would like to preface this discussion by stating that user experience (or UX as it is called) is an area in which I am still learning and growing. As such, I certainly don’t come at this subject with any claim at being an authoritative voice on the subject. Instead, I would simply like to share some of my own observations and outline what I feel that I’ve learned from them.

Attractive Packaging

Before ever even getting my hands on the iPhone (and beginning a never ending battle with fingerprints and smudges on its glassy black surface), my first contact was with the packaging itself. The box was small and compact, and a remarkable example of design in its own right! The top of the box featured an image of the iPhone itself, with the apps arranged to their default configuration.

The shape of the iPhone was also raised out of the smooth rigid cardboard, and printed with a shiny finish along the silver bevel. All of this radiated the simple promise of the device that was resting inside, waiting to be used and enjoyed.

All told, this first moment of contact with the product was extremely enjoyable (I will definitely be keeping that box). From this, I would suggest that, although simple packaging on its own will never be enough to establish a positive user experience, it’s certainly a good first step.

I think that this same premise can be translated into a lesson for designing all types of user experience. By wrapping the product in an attractive and enjoyable package (either physical or metaphorical), you can begin to establish the foundation for a positive user experience. Once the packaging is opened, however, it will always be up to the product itself to deliver that experience.

Uniformity of Brand

After opening the packaging, I obviously came face to face with the iPhone itself, resting in its simple, black plastic cradle. There were, however several other things also to be found in that little black box, including the instruction booklets, headphones, the USB cable and a nifty little adapter which turns that cable into an independent charging cord that plugs right into the wall.

All of these things were wonderfully familiar to me through my experience with other Apple products. I would like to consider each of them independently.

The lesson learned here is the importance of branding in the user experience. For me, every purchase of an Apple product only emphasizes my understanding of their core brand values. Also given that I have had a positive experience with all of their products, I can thus be confident that any future purchases will also provide me with a similar (positive) experience!

It Just Works

One phrase that we’ve heard as recently as Steve Jobs’ much heralded revelation of the already infamous iPad is that “it just works”. This is equally true of the iPhone. I was able to simply turn it on and start using it. I pressed the home button and up popped the menu. I quickly located Safari (another form of brand uniformity), launched the app and started surfing the internet.

The iPhone reall does just work (click for original image source)

It really was that easy.

And so was setting up my email. I just plugged the iPhone into my MacBook and synced them up. Immediately, the mail app on my iPhone was configured and I was able to download and read my emails. All of the other apps worked the same way. As such, my immediate experience with the product (and my continuing experience so far) is that it just works. There’s no need to jump through hoops to get it to do what I want.

The lesson to be learned here is that a product should just do what it is designed to do. This, of course, would include a website. If your site is designed to have a specific functionality, making sure that it just works the way it’s supposed to is a relatively a elementary (though perhaps not always simple) way to help ensure a positive user experience!

Wonderful Simplicity

The iPhone is also wonderfully simple and intuitive to use. This is similar to the fact that it just works, but I categorize it somewhat differently because a product can work the way it’s designed to but still be more complex than is really necessary.

Not so with the iPhone. After turning it on, I was able to navigate through the apps easily – literally just with a flip and tap of my thumb. Various functionality, such as systems settings were easy to find and understand. After just a few hours I felt more than competent with the device. This all contributed to a positive experience on my part.

Compare this against my wife, who picked up a Blackberry at the same time as I got the iPhone. She actually really loves her new phone, so I am by no means suggesting that she had a negative user experience, but there was certainly a longer learning curve as she accustomed herself to using the device and navigating through the various menus and sub menus.

Fortunately the learning curve was not so steep as to turn her off of her new purchase, but there is a user experience lesson to be learned here too. Make the use of your product (or design) as simple as possible. Of course, you don’t want to sacrifice functionality, but making your interface simple and intuitive is another crucial step towards helping to ensure a positive experience for your users and/or customers.

Conclusion

Well there you have it. This is probably not the most scientific or academic way out outlining use experience, and is certainly not an exhaustive list of the areas that you need to consider when designing for user experience. Still, I hope that you can learn something from this article. At the very least, I hope that my experiences have helped to affirm some of the things that you may have already known on the subject.

As I mentioned, I’m far from an expert in user experience, so I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on this one. Did any of you have a similar experience with your iPhones, or perhaps with a different product? Please feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts and experiences!

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