[Sigia-l] SMS and phone number labeling

[Todd R.Warfel]

On Thursday, February 27, 2003, at 11:38 AM, Chris Heathcote wrote:

> You have to let them choose any number they have. Any second-guessing
> of which are mobile numbers, and which aren't, will be impossible,
> especially with international numbers, and products such as this:
> http://www.johnlewis.com/stores/ 
> product.asp?sku=230170130&str=928&trsid=401&m=15
> (fixed line phone with SMS capability)

It's not impossible. If you don't want to take the proper time to  
create a proper system that can figure out when a user has created and  
error and protect them from themselves, then say so. But it's not  
impossible. Just because it doesn't exist today doesn't mean it's  
impossible. Invent it.

Perhaps the best solution to investigate is to:
1. Show them only the SMS compatible phone numbers
2. Provide them an option to display other/additional numbers (not by  
default)
3. Create a system that knows whether or not a number is an SMS  
compatible number and helps prevent the user from creating errors.

> For some people, yes. Others have been imported from legacy handsets,
> so I have, say, 3 entries for one person (each with 1 phone number).
> Assume nothing.

1. So some real ethnographic sampling. Not from this list alone. Go out  
into the field and find out what people are really doing, not what  
they're saying they're doing. You might be surprised by the differences.
2. Create a handful of personas that reflect your findings.
3. Make assumptions based on your findings, weed out the "edge-cases"  
and build it.



Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel

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