My dad lost his Iphone3 recently in a vegetable market. We have all the bills and serial numbers and filed a police compliant. Surprisingly there is a separate huge mobile lost register in the police station and our details were entered but "No Luck".
Got his new duplicate SIM card and given my old Nokia N70 for time being. I noticed that he has lot of difficulty using "Key Pad Phone" with smaller display. He told me that i don't want this "Stupid Buttons". He is a Retd. Govt officer and 63 years old (point tobe noted). I started observing his user behavior very carefully on the "mobile phones" interactions and asked him to play around with My wife's Sony Ericsson and Mom's Samsung Flip Phone and other couple of old phones which are again not "Touch" interface and not "Big Screens". Finally, i have given him my Iphone 4 and he is really comfortable and i noticed "happiness" in his face.
This made me thing more from "User Experience" perspective and nailed down to 4 primary questions.
1) Is he happy with the IPhone "Ease of Use" ?
2) Bigger Screen & Size of the phone?
3) Touch Interface?
4) Apple Brand?
I have asked him to goto a mobile store and play around with all latest mobile phones in the market. He explored multiple mobile phone including Iphone 5, HTC, Samsung, BalckBerry, etc. and finally told me that he like the white phone with Bigger display but expressed that all good mobiles are damm expensive and above INR -25,000/-. His feedback on Samsung Tablet Phone was "That this don't fit in my pocket" and "Har to Hold" and this not a decent size. Finally as is an existing user of IOS- Iphone3 from almost 2 years, He suggested me to give my Iphone4 for him and you buy a new phone of your like. I was bit curious why my dad is more lean towards Iphone.
After couple of days, on his birthday i have gifted a surprise with a brand new "Samsung Galaxy Duo" white phone. I wanted to observe all his reaction, emotion, excitement and exploration of "Android" as he is using for the first time and an interesting user segment . He was super exited with the new gadget with bigger screen and without a key board. As you guys aware this is an upgrade from Iphone3 to Android. In the past he used to ask me to download multiple apps like Talking Tom, Solitaire etc. With the super excitement placed his SIM card and stated exploration how to use it. I was bit curious and want him to explore himself and just guide him only if he has some basic questions. He connected to wifi and watched you tube videos, Google around and sent text messages.
My dad is very exited with android than apple and tweaking / swiping all the apps and trying out. Surprisingly i have noticed next morning he is explored skype and also made some viber calls to his friends. When i asked do you love Apple or Samsung, He replied that Apple is also good but i am loving the Samsung Big Screen, More display, White Color and i can do my task easily. He told vibrantly that i want more contacts, videos, music, browse internet for emails, text, and able to see the my recent history and easy to call or end calls.
I think "Excitement" "Emotions" "Happiness" "Ease of Use" "Look N Feel" "Size" "Effectiveness" plays a key role for any product success. I am sure my dad will teach me about new apps, features and feedback in shortly.. :) I am really super exited watching this as a son who is an User eXperience Professional.
