Ergonomics: Ease of use

In my last blog I analyzed a design (my chair) by using the five areas of ergonomics. For this post I'd like to focus on just one of those areas, ease of use, and analyze a different (but equally disappointing) design: my cell phone.

As our technology becomes more and more advanced, so do our cell phones; but one trait that phone designers must keep intact in order to ensure that everyday people can use and enjoy this technology, is the ease of use. My cell phone, the LG Neon, is very disappointing in that regard. 

Let me start off by saying, the phone currently sitting next to my laptop is the third physical phone of this model that I have had. Not because I simply love this phone, not because I broke the last two, simply because the last two were both dysfunctional. My dad, who has the same model phone, is also on his third. This phone utilizes technological advances in its slide out keyboard, digital interface, and (some) use of touch screen, but its design and malfunctions diminish much of its ease of use. 

The keyboard is not quite wide enough and the keys are not quite big enough to make it easy for the user to type on. This could be solved with a touch screen option but the only application of a touch pad is when entering a number to call. During a call however, one must slide open the keyboard to enter a number. So whenever I call an automated service that asks me to enter a "4 for more info", I must open the phone and find the "four" among the variety of lettered keys. 

Then there is the fact that this phone has a habit of  powering itself off. Often, I've noticed, this happens right when I press "send" after writing a lengthy text. As you can probably imagine, this doesn't exactly please me. 

My last complaint is about the menu interface. Sometimes the phone won't respond at all to a command I make by pressing a key, and other times it will simply "freeze-up" when I control it too quickly. I have also noticed that the phone will sometimes mistake one command for another, and open the wrong app. This often results in the "browser" opening and the phone (unsurprisingly) takes a while to react to my command to close it. 

This phone attracted me with is mastery of ergonomics mainly in the area of aesthetics, but it has become clear to me that it fails miserably in the area of ease of use.