[Sigia-l] SMS and phone number labeling

[anu gupta]

Hi,

In the absence of any other options / system intelligence, I think you
have to present all numbers.

I just did a quick poll of numbers in my phone, and some co-workers, and
around 60% of mobile numbers were not classified specifically as mobile
numbers using the phone classification, but instead used the person's own
classification system [eg John Smith h = John Smith home, Mary Bryant m =
Mary Bryant mobile], or were just incorrectly categorised.

Certainly the best way in the UK would be to filter on the 07 prefix,
however, I don't think it's that easy in the US and Canada [any maybe the
rest of the world], or anywhere mobile numbers are essentially
indistinguishable from landline phones [or at least have the same area
code prefix], unless you have huge lists of number blocks reserved for
mobiles.

anu


Todd Warfel said:
> 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
>
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