I'm in the midst of shopping for a new cellphone (complicated by the fact that the phone I sent through the laundry last month isn't eligible for upgrade yet, so now I'm putting together this complicated shell game that involves upgrading a second, eligible phone and swapping SIM chips), and I found this narrative about a cellphone usability nightmare from Xeni Jardin at Boing-Boing:
I had a panic dream over the weekend in which I was stuck in a scene of apocalyptic chaos, trying to call for help on a cellphone -- but I couldn't place the call because the keypad was badly designed. Each key was flat and inoperable, and would not respond. The numbers were all mushed together, and they shrank as I struck the keys, frantically trying to dial my mom or 911 or Batman, in alternating sequences, over and over. The keypad panic feeling was the same as when you're being chased in a dream and you run and run and run but you're still in the same place. Then I woke up.
I like the list of people Jardin was attempting to call--"my mom or 911 or Batman." Sort of a gallery of heroes for various age brackets.
[via Boing Boing]
Posted by johndan at February 21, 2005 02:01 PM | TrackBack