[Sigia-l] [Siglia-l] SMS and phone number labeling

[Chad]

I wanted to pose a scenario to the group to get some feedback and 
thoughts as we have been going back and forth on this for a few days. 
Your team is designing a SMS (Short Message Service) application for a 
mobile device.

SCENARIO:
Leo wants to compose a new SMS message to his friend Sue. He launches 
the SMS/Text Messaging application. He can't remember Sue's phone 
number so he chooses to find the number in his contact list. For the 
sake of example he selects the "look up" option from within the SMS 
application.  A list of his contacts and phone numbers are presented 
for him to choose from.

Leo has a fairly complete contact list (300+ names). Many contacts have 
multiple phone numbers which Leo has labeled as Mobile, Home, Other, 
Work (labels provided by the software). A single record can have 
multiple numbers with the same classification.
---

So the question is: Since SMS messages can only be sent to Mobile 
phones (at this point), is Leo only presented with Mobile classified 
phone numbers to choose from, or all phone numbers in his address book?

01: Presenting a list of only "mobile" classified numbers creates a 
simpler interface and most likely fewer steps (as there may be far 
fewer numbers to choose from); however Leo may have mislabeled Sue's 
number in his phone book.  So her Mobile phone number could be labeled 
as "Other" or "Work". Therefore Leo wouldn't be able to find Sue's 
number going this route.

02: On the other hand, if you allow Leo to choose from all the numbers 
in his phone book, no matter classification,  then Leo could end out 
sending SMS messages to non-mobile phones. (BTW there is no 
bounce-back). You're also presenting Leo with say a list of 350 phone 
numbers necessitating 2 levels of hierarchy versus a list of say 130 
numbers.

Do you design for:
  - simplicity, trusting that users will label most of their "important" 
or regularly used numbers correctly; People tend to communicate with 
only 3-5 people on a regular basis.

or

- completeness, allow users to choose and send an SMS to any phone 
number, even if the number is a land line.

---
Functions such as a Speed Dial or field auto-complete can assist 
regular users, but a complete lookup will need to be available. We will 
be testing later on, but I'm curious if anyone has had any experience 
with a scenario similar to this or just has an opinion. Do you label 
your numbers correctly in your phone or PDA? Are the numbers for people 
you contact on a regular basis labeled correctly?

Thanks,

Chad


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Chad Jennings
chad at method.com

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Method
www.method.com

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