[Sigia-l] SMS and phone number labeling

[Todd Warfel]

1) Design for preventing user error.
2) Plan for when things go wrong.

You should avoid displaying options to the user that can either encourage an
error, or are not viable options.

That being said, you should either only display phones that are viable for
SMS messaging, or clearly label which numbers are "SMS compatible."

Ideally, the system should know, or be able to figure out, whether or not a
number is SMS compatible regardless of whether or not the user labeled it
incorrectly (e.g. Based on prefix).

On 2/26/03 7:31 PM, "Chad" <chad at method.com> wrote:

> 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.


Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel

_//message first [method second]
.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.
_//user experience architect
Information architecture
Interaction design
Usability analysis
[P] (607) 339-9640
[E]  twarfel at messagefirst.com
[w] http://www.messagefirst.com
.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.==.--.

In theory, theory and practice are the same,
but in practice, they're not -- anonymous