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Control Center toggle for Do Not Disturb is poorly designed
- Thread starter MonstaMash
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No, I'm not. Android is a lot more clunky, less obvious and 'difficult' for non-techies. My mother hasn't got a clue when it comes to her Galaxy S4, but was fine with her previous iPhone. I am forever showing her how to use it.
Sure she can send a SMS and make a phonecall, but anything which involves using the preposterously unlabelled and hidden 'menu' key dumfounds her.
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Ohh man, soryy!!!
I read "Android phones are a lot more user-friendly." So we are of the same opinion
Android is such a mess, my grandfather has the same problems with his Nexus 4 as your mother.
Assuming that your statement about Android is correct (I just don't know, since I've never used one), that suggests that Apple doesn't have to do much because the bar is set low. I prefer to think that Apple can do much better with intelligent UI design. As I mentioned upthread, they should increase the space between the icons and the caret in Control Center to lessen the chance of inadvertent activation, as well as consider pop ups for those who want them.
I notice that some of the examples that others have provided referred to "older" people (moms, grandfathers), who may have more problems using smartphones. Apple can accommodate them without alienating younger, more tech-savvy users.
Two ideas that they could introduce to fix this:
- When Do Not Disturb is enabled, an overlay like what you see when you enable/disable rotation lock or change the volume says "Do Not Disturb enabled."
- Have it so that DND disables itself after 24 hours.
I don't see what the problem is... If they took 10-15 minutes if their time to familiarise themselves with its features it would be at the blame of apple!! Is it microsofts fault if someone hits a setting to not auto download and install important security updates and they miss out? Or if the customer switches outlook into offline mode with a keyboard shortcut?! I get this a lot! Lol!
Apple went even further with this than with the silent switch as far as actually placing an icon for it in the status bar that is essentially everywhere making it easy to notice at any time (unlike the silent switch which you can only see if you look at the side of the phone, and it seems like even less people would do that that look in the status bar).
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In that case, shouldn't we had a pop-up for the phone being on silent then since the initial days of iOS? Where's the outrage about that then?
Everyone knows about silent/mute mode. That feature has been on phones for decades.
If their phone lights up and no sound comes from it, they will realize , "oh, must be on silent".
DND on the other hand is a new concept. My phone is on, but I don't receive calls at all? The screen isn't lighting? Airplane mode is off. My phone isn't on silent. What the hell is going on?
To the persons who are unfamiliar with DND, and to the person who accidentally turned it on; the user should be made aware of what is happening.
I originally suggested a popup every 24/48 hours. But I just realized that a simple persistent (but removable) lock screen notification could keep confusion at bay.
The silent feature never really worked the same way it worked on other phones--on pretty much all other phones "for decades" the feature worked by holding some button for a bit or by enabling something in settings, rather than by a physical switch on the phone. And practically on all of those phones when it was enabled a vibrate/silent indicator came up in the status bar or somewhere else on the screen to indicate that it was enabled (like DND actually). So, seemingly most people were used to that kind of thing--seeing if it was enabled in the status bar or somewhere similar on the home screen.
In fact the way iPhone does it would seem to be different and new, yet, again doesn't seem like there's an outrage about it and people got used to it and understand it. So why is DND so different when it's in fact more in line with how vibrate/silent worked in all phones previous to iPhone and many other phones today outside of iPhones?
It's new to iPhones in a sense, but most of what's behind it has been there and is there on most other phones. So it's the "new" part that's mostly catching people off guard, well, just like the silent switch which has become more than acceptable even though it was new before, this will become like this with a bit of time as more people use the phone and the features.
You must be joking. I've used iPhones for 7 years and to this day I'm still "familiarizing myself" with the intricacies of its features.
There's no way in hell my 60 year old mother would be able to keep up with the ever evolving features of her iOS device.
Just like she or someone like her initially didn't even know how to turn on vibrate/silent or perhaps would turn it on and not realize that it was on or how to know that it was on without physically looking at the switch (and even then some people, especially older adults, might have trouble making out the little red indicator there too). It took some practice/learning--a bit more for some than others--but most have figured it out and got the hang of it. It's a similar situation here--perhaps the first time or even few times they might not realize it, but soon they'll know what the crescent moon icon means if it's there, and how to deal with it, if needed.
We're not (at least I'm not) talking about the method of enabling or disabling the feature. But rather the overall concept which seems to be throwing people off, especially one who has had the feature inadvertently enabled.
The user isn't being alerted/ made aware as to what is going on if DND is accidentally enabled. Yes, there's a moon in the status bar, but as I've said before, many people either don't keep track of what's up there (looks at Android users), and worse if they see it, they have no idea what it means.
And when they enabled vibrate/silent mode on phones before iPhone or many other phones, and see some icon in the status bar, they also didn't know what it was at some point probably, but they figured it out. People also didn't pay attention to what was on their phones or didn't know about it? Or when their silent switch is enabled and there's no indicator at all in the status bar or anywhere else when they use the phone later, somehow they still figure it out, right? Otherwise, again, why aren't we talking about all of that needing pop-ups and explanations and all that as well?
Again, it's new, that's what it comes down to. People will figure it out once it's not so new to them, as they have many other things.
I get your point. But two things:
1. I have no idea if there was confusion around the silent switch / toggle / option. Nor do I know how the initial manufacturers dealt with informing cell phone users about the toggle.
However, what I do know is that,
2. People who make good products don't want their customers stumbling around trying to figure out "how does this thing work?" & asking themselves "what the hell is going on?"
What has come to the attention of the OP and myself is that there lacks clarity on DND, and Apple can do a better job of letting the user know what is happening when DND is accidentally activated.
What you are suggesting is that people will eventually figure it out, there's no need for hand holding. But that will only lead to a reduction in "ease of use". Something that Apple prides itself on.
Don't you get badges on your phone/messages app? Wouldn't they notice they have missed calls/messages unread? Wouldn't they notice something is up?
I guess what I'm saying it all woked out and works out just fine with very similar features like silent mode, and it will be like that with this. It all worked out fine. Would some intro help? Perhaps, but then it can be for pretty much for any setting. A line is drawn somewhere as far as what's worth it and what might not be for different reasons. Again, very much similar things like silent switch or airplane make don't even have intro things like that, the main difference being is that they aren't something new (but at some point they were and people picked up on them as they do with all kinds of things in life).
I can speak for my mother who had the issue. Yes! She realized something was up, but couldn't determine what was up.
That's true same thing happened to my mom once lol I had to disable control center from the lock screen and it hasn't happened since.
I guess some people might be able to figure it out but those aren't tech savvy at all are screwed.
Seems like in your case and the case of some others in this thread there have been people to explain and/or help out those who ran into something. That's one of the ways people learn or at least get things adjusted for them so they would work for them. So, in a sense, "the system works".
It doesn't stop them. It stops the phone from waking up from push notification. The screen never turns on, never beeps. Apps still function as normal.
Yes it is their fault - The iPhone was created so that it does not need an instruction manual, and in my job i also see dozens of people a day who accidentally have it enabled. All it needs is a pop up explaining what will happen when the user enables it. Simple
My 57yo mum recently got her first iphone and has made this very mistake. She thought there was something wrong with her phone.
It is a simple fix for Apple and I'm sure it will be in iOS 8.