UX Observations: The iPhone Send Button

If you own an iPhone, then chances are this has happened to you – you are angrily texting your lady/man friend, engaging in a heated battle about something you have no business discussing over text. You are too impulsive and/or pissed-off to delay the conversation, and instead indulge in some misguided textual gratification.

In the midst of furious texting, your thumb reaches for the “O,” but instead smashes into the “Send” button, unleashing a zygote of a text that undermines the cogency of your calm, rational text argument. This infuriates me. Why is the send button in a place where it can so easily be accidentally hit?

Apple is known for their great UX, and they’re good at it, they really are. But sometimes even they can throw a wtf wrench into our experience (remember the random orientation change of the close/minimize buttons in iTunes?). I’ve talked to quite a few other iPhone users who have this same issue when trying to argue via text.

                                          

Here’s my suggestion for revisions. Take the Send button and move it down to where the Return button currently is. That way the gesture to actually send a text is more deliberate, but still in one of the iPhone finger hotspots. You’ll be less likely to graze it when typing “you suck” with one hand.

The Backspace button can find a new home up in the top row of letters, on the right side, in the same general vicinity where you’ll find it on a physical keyboard. It’s a familiar layout to any keyboard user, so it won’t cause mass confusion. The higher placement of the Backspace button also ensures that if you mistakenly hit it, you can easily correct your mistake. If you accidentally delete a letter, you can just retype it – no harm, no foul. If you accidentally send a text, you cannot get it back. You can’t. Trust me.

The Return button can find a new home where the Backspace button currently lives. This is for two reasons: 1) my guess is that the Return button is the least used of the three, so it doesn’t need to take up super prime real estate, and 2) if you accidentally hit the Return button instead of the “M,” it’s an easy fix.

What do you think, are you plagued by the scourge of accidentally sent texts?