Review: Samsung Instinct

So let me get this straight: the user tries to tap something that he should slide, which you acknowledge may be "a common mistake." You suggest that he should have looked in the manual, even though you also say you wouldn't expect more than a small percentage of users to do this.

And that's not a design flaw?

Sure, the phone can be used. But is it easy? Is it intuitive? Or do you have to go digging through the user manual to find out why you can't press that darn button, while many other users just give up?

Even if the reviewers had figured this out, it would be valid to point out that it was confusing. Well-designed products make it obvious what you should do. I do tech support for cell phones and I know that there are dumb users out there, but really, in most cases it's just bad design.

Apple understands how to make things intuitive. Anybody that wants to compete with them has to understand that, too. Users don't like being confused and told to read the manual. They like things easy and obvious. And so do I.