iPhone and Windows Phone Are Easier to Navigate for Novice Users Than Android and BlackBerry
Our friends over at Technologizer posted this interesting video of a usability study featuring the iPhone 4, a Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7, a BlackBerry Storm and an HTC Thunderbolt running Android. This study, which was organized by University of Pittsburgh professor Dennis Galletta while teaching a summer course at Harvard, examined how novice users would perform a number of basic phone features like calling, adding contacts and sending a text message.
Sadly, we don’t know much about the methodology used here, but according to Galletta, all the users in the video had never used these platforms before (though if hard-core iPhone users suddenly had to switch to the Windows Phone 7 interface, for example, chances are that they would be rather confused, too, simply because the interface metaphor there is very different).
Still, the video is pretty instructive and a good reminder for how difficult it sometimes is for regular people user to perform basic functions on their phones (though the video would be even better without the background music…).
