iPhone’s Clever Alarm Clock
It’s of course cliche to use Apple as an example of good design, but I’m going to do it anyway. In Designing for Interaction, one of the characteristics of good interaction design I called out was clever. Clever design anticipates users’ needs and designs a solution for it before the user even knows it is an issue. One tiny detail in the iPhone’s alarm clock illustrates this perfectly.
It’s no secret that alarm clock functionality is one of the most-used functions on any mobile phone. Outside of actually making a call and putting the phone on/off mute, it might even be the next most used functionality, so attention should be paid to it. Apple has, and here is the tiny detail I love on the iPhone’s alarm clock.
When you go to set an alarm, the iPhone provides you with a list of previous alarms, all of which are turned off as a default. If you edit one of those alarms, when you return back to the list view, the newly-edited alarm is automatically turned on. The user doesn’t have to manually switch the alarm on because the designer understood that if you are bothering to edit an alarm, you probably want it turned on. It’s clever, and kudos to the designer who thought of it.
It’s a tiny moment that saves, oh, three seconds of time, but how often are these sorts of small details not thought out, causing thousands of moments of lost time? And perhaps a missed alarm?
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3 Comments
I totally agree, however I’ll admit that still, after a couple years of use, I’m confused/surprised to find it’s automatically on once I edit it. Some habits/expectations are hard to break, even with cleverness!
Interestingly, I’ve had the iPhone alarm clock let me down.
Overseas flight, I finally fall into a hotel bed. I carefully check time zones, set up my alarm. It is all correct. I then mute my device so phone calls won’t wake me up. Was late for a presentation.
My Nokia actually didn’t. They’ve got a feature that even if the phone is off, the alarm clock still works.
iPod Touch alarm clock makes no noise if the headphones are plugged in.
Nokia has a nice “quick alarm” as the default action, slightly faster than iPhone, and defaulting to 10 minutes from now. It’s faster because typing four numbers is faster than setting minutes on the wheel control. A “normal” alarm is a different thing, but also not something you edit with the same regularity.
Not trying to Apple-bash, but instead to point out that they didn’t get certain key details right. And their competitors have. Obviously the reverse is true as well.
What’s fascinating is where Apple *didn’t* add this level of sophistication: adding contacts. You can try this out yourself: tap the “+” button to add a new contact. Then tap “First Last” and enter in a name. I used “Aard Vark” just for giggles. Then tap “Save” which will return you to the “New Contact” screen. Unless you tap “Save” AGAIN, your contact will not be saved. I have lost the names of several people I met at conferences this way, only to have to do some serious Googling to find their names after the fact.
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