Jason Kottke’s recent article “One-handed computing with the iPhone” (published yesterday, Oct 29th, 2009) begins:
“The easy single-handed operation of the iPhone [1] is not one of its obvious selling points but is one of those little features that grows on you and becomes nearly indispensable. A portable networked computing and gaming device that can be easily operated with one hand can be used in a surprising variety of situations.”
By Spitzgogo_CHEN. Titled "Niece & My Nokia 6230i (by Nikon D70)". CC by-nc. Flickr Hosted.
Jason goes on to describe some of the activities you can do at the same time as using iPhone applications, and the advantages one hand operation has — go read it and come right back.
The article reminds me of a concept that mobile computing buffs Boris Mann and Roland Tanglao suggested to me a few years ago, which really clicked for me.
You hold a phone with one hand.
Seems wicked obvious doesn’t it! It’s sorta what Jason is talking about though. If you use old school phones and dumb mobile phones with one hand, wouldn’t a “smartphone” need to be usable one-handed2 (or less)?
If I recall, at the time Boris and Roland were educating me about the death of PDAs and stylus based3 “smart phones”, but it’s just is relevant to the current generation of devices, particularly as Jason describes, these smartphones taking on more roles — camera, gaming, etc.
It doesn’t seem Boris, Roland and my discussions translated into online artifacts, but I did find one silly comment I made early 20074 , “One hand holding and navigation will be interesting, but it is important that it does it well, because I read somewhere that defines a smart phone 
”. The iPhone does it well.
I’ve always gotten a kick out out of see people go from talking on a SideKick to typing with a flick of a wrist, or sidetalking Nokia N-Gage5 style, but why haven’t these hip tools caught on?
Should we be surprised that easy one handed operation feels good?
I suspect cognitive processes and social norms particularly in public settings play big roles:
- You use a phone with one hand and you always have.
- There is a casualness to using a phone.
- You often don’t give it your full attention.
- You need a hand free to interact with your environment.
- You require alertness in a public setting. One hand free in case a predator strikes.
- It’s embarrassing to give a device your full attention, particularly in a public setting. Particularly if you are an adult playing a game or otherwise not being productive.
- It’s rude to not pay attention to the people around you.
- We are social creatures.
It seems to me that it’s only natural.
- Jason links to a footnote that reads 'In this essay, I'm using "the iPhone" as a convenient shorthand for "any of a number of devices and smartphones that offer similar functionality to the iPhone, including but not limited to the Palm Pre, Android phones, Blackberry Storm, and iPod Touch". Similar arguments apply, to varying degrees, to these devices and their manufacturers but are especially relevant to the iPhone and Apple; hence, the shorthand.' [↩]
- Marco Arment walks us through his left handed operation of the iPhone [↩]
- Daring Firefox John Gruber’s comment on Jason’s article is “One-handed operation wasn’t feasible on stylus-based systems.” [↩]
- response to Boris’s January 09, 2007 article “iPhone is a tablet“ [↩]
- Nokia N-Gage demise was recently announced. [↩]
There’s another aspect to this that’s often overlooked. We didn’t realize it till the 3rd hiptop (and first major hardware overhaul), you often use your phone without looking at it. You can dial without looking, you can chat on IM without looking, you answer without looking.
This is the major place where phones whose UI depends on touchscreens have trouble.
Hmm, is the iPhone really a one-handed device though? Many of the gestures (such as zooming) require two fingers. I’m not sure I see how you can do them without using one hand to hold it and the other for inputting the gestures, at least, not effectively.
You’re right Duane. The iPhone is barely a one-handed device. Typing out a text message with one hand takes and incredible amount of dexterity and now that I think about it…is nearly impossible. Besides dialing a phone number, what tasks can be performed with one hand on the iPhone?
i think with some training you can use iphone with one hand… writing and calling for sure… and browsing websites is fine too with one hand – you can zoom with double-tap for example.