Did the iPhone X miss the spot?

Full disclosure, I have an iPhone X. I’ve had an Apple phone since 2013. I’ll probably never buy an Android again. I might be what droid heads (as I’m going to call them in a preemptive first strike in the inevitable name calling tit for tat war this article will instigate), call an Apple fanboy. So when I was asked to review Apple’s new phone from the perspective of usability, I was worried I wouldn’t be objective or that at least I’d feel the need to be an apologist for Tim Cook and the rest of fruit gang.

Well, turns out not so much. Like some beloved grandparent you discover did some dodgy things in their youth (I always suspected grandma had a prison tattoo), I grew up never daring to think Apple might be less than perfect.

Throughout the noughties they were the paragon of user-centred design. Form was important, but when you compared the iPod to the Zune, it was the function of the touch sensitive scroll wheel that set the mp3 players apart. That scroll wheel made the interface quicker to learn and easier to recall. Crucially it was just more efficient to use. I remember picking up an iPod in 2006 and figuring out how it worked in about 5 minutes. The Zune felt clunky and difficult, whilst the iPod was simpler and more intuitive. Then in 2007 we got the first iPhone, and compared to the Sony Ericsson W810i I had at the time, it was a revelation (I’m not going to talk at length on the reasons why, that’s a whole other article in its own right). So regardless of the impact on my fanboy status, I’m going to say what many people are thinking. When they designed the iPhone X, Apple weren’t thinking about their users like they used to.

Who are you to criticise I hear the rest of Apple fandom shout. They’re the most valuable company in the world, their cash pile is bigger than the GDP of most countries[1], they can’t learn anything from you. In response I need only show you the four digits on my receipt for the X. I am a customer, I am an end user. I am therefore the person this device is aimed at. My opinion, and those who like me are willing to spend approximately 60% of the average monthly income in the UK[2] on one gadget, should be the primary concern of the X’s designers. This is the core of user-centred design, the clue is in the name. Some of the iPhone X’s features lead me to believe they’ve lost focus on their users.

What are the issues with the iPhone X and Apple more broadly? Firstly they've forgotten a basic tenet of utility. No matter how good something looks, if you can't use it without hurting yourself or damaging the product it's failed. As evidence of Apple’s forgetfulness (or perhaps willful regard for form over function), I point you to recent reports of Apple employees walking into windows in Cupertino[3], or the fact that anyone who buys an iPhone X immediately also buys a rubber case. Those stainless steel sides might look divine, but they're more slippery than the devil mud wrestling a politician[4].

Usability issues even extend to the name, is it 10 or X? You might think this is trivial, or not even about usability, and it's not really. But it is illustrative of the basics being ignored. Usable products, systems and interfaces are simple and unambiguous, they align with a user’s existing mental model of the world. We all knew there was an iPhone 7, and every version before had been a play on a sequential number system (I'm deliberately ignoring the SE here). Somewhere deep in the bowels of Apple land they decided that the 9 was dead, and customers probably wouldn't notice it had died anyway. Calling it the X or 10 or whatever, broke customer's understanding of how the naming conventions work. Even though it makes sense when you explain it, (the iPhone is ten years old, this is the 10th anniversary edition), the fact that you have to explain it is the issue. They decided that even though this was going to confuse and annoy people, they didn’t care.

Then we get to Face ID. How I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they came up with that idea. In my mind the conversation went like this.

Generic middle aged Apple exec 1: “Samsung are selling a lot of phones with edge to edge displays. We better keep up with the trend.”

Generic middle aged Apple exec 2: “Solid thinking exec 1. But what are we going to do about the fingerprint scanner?”

Generic middle aged Apple exec 3: “Put it on the back?”

Generic middle aged Apple exec 2: “We’ve just settled one court case with Samsung let’s not start another. Any more ideas?”

Generic middle aged Apple exec 1: “Well fingers are something almost everyone has, and are the primary appendage people use to interact with their phones. So if we can’t use fingers anymore, what else has everyone got that they use every time they interact with the thing?”

Generic middle aged Apple exec 3: “Their wallets?”

Generic middle aged Apple exec 2: “Got that covered, we’re making the X/10 more expensive than most people pay in rent every month.”

Generic middle aged Apple exec 1: “I’ve got it! Face!”

Imaginary and incredibly unfair executive meetings aside, I loved the idea of Face ID. Like most people, I do have a face, and I use it every day. On paper this is a great solution. In practice if I hold the phone too close, or even at the wrong angle it doesn’t work. When it’s face up on a desk, I have to pick the thing up and point it at my food hole to see what junk mail I just got, or what wildly inappropriate meme Nana has just posted to the family Whatsapp group. In the first 3 months of owning the X I’ve entered my passcode more times than in the 2 years I owned a 6s. Face ID isn’t as efficient as the fingerprint scanner was, and is therefore stupidly annoying in the context of the number of avocado on toast brunches I’m foregoing in order to afford the thing. In all seriousness they forgot about (or wilfully disregarded) the context of use. I often look directly at my phone when I want to unlock it, but not all the time, and Face ID doesn’t support my interaction in the real world.

I’m not saying that everything is bad. The other implication of the edge to edge display and removal of the home button is the new gestural inputs. When you wanted to return to the home screen on older models you pressed a physical button, how very 2016. Now you have a little bar at the bottom of the screen. Want to go back to the home screen, swipe up. Want to switch to another app already open, swipe up and hold. This feature, in my humble/curmudgeonly opinion, has been well designed. You get a little demo when you set up the device, which makes it easy to learn. However, and this is simple but brilliant, the bar at the bottom of the screen does a little bounce on the lock screen. This is a subtle aid encouraging the user to recall the interaction they’d previously learnt. It is genius. In fact this interaction is so natural it took me 5 minutes to unlock a 6s the other day. I kept trying to swipe, forgetting I was using a device that is 4 (could be 6 or 7, they ruined the numbering) models behind the X.

So what’s the take home? When you think too much about the competition, or what product designers/engineers think would be cool (I’m looking at you slippery sides), you forget the most important stakeholder in the design process, the user.

References:

[1] Source https://www.cultofmac.com/311876/Apples-massive-cash-hoard-makes-richer-141-countries/

[2] We took the average UK income at ￡27,600 from here https://recruitmentbuzz.co.uk/average-wage-uk-salary-earning-age/, found out what that is after tax, ￡1,845, then calculated what percentage of that figure the most expensive iPhone X would be in comparison. At the time of publication ￡1,150

[3] Source https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/Apple-calls-emergency-services-employees-injured-walking-glass-panes-new-hq-Apple-park-silicon-a8215691.html

[4] Source https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/iphone-x-release-Apple-smash-screen-display-features-price-buy-store-shop-a8035701.html