Hit record is what I and 200+ million other users have been trying to do since day one on our iPhones.
You know what I am talking about. It's your friend's birthday. You are outdoors. You hit record on the iPhone Camera app. But you have no idea whether you actually hit record. The blinking red light is too subtle to see in daylight. And the running counter numbers are just as invisible. So it's hit or miss. And another priceless memory vanishes in time. Graduations, weddings, sunsets, concerts and any moment and every moment you care about gone.
(Wait a minute, this design actually makes sense from a music industry perspective: you don't want people recording concerts and live music at all. Problem solved.)
No big deal, right? But when you consider that most people ultimately abandon their bulky cameras and camcorders, in favor of their iPhones. Just by force of habit and convenience. You are talking about 200 million people losing precious memories on a fairly regular basis. If each of us loses 5 memories, puff, there goes a billion of them. Imagine if a billion stars vanished from the sky each night. If you are like me, eventually you stop shooting video with your iPhone altogether. It's just too risky.
My 12 year-old, smart as a whip, daughter borrowed my iPhone to record the fireworks at Disney World, something that meant everything to her. She is no stranger to the iPhone, using it all the time. She has owned a few herself. Even on that perfect Florida night, she too thought the iPhone was recording everything. It did not record a single thing. No fireworks, no music, no illuminated castle, nothing. Here is the one still photo my daughter scored of the fireworks, thanks to the Camera app design:
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| One Fireworks Pic, No Video |
Lacking real controls and visual feedback, the iPhone never adequately informed her of what it was doing. Or not doing. Short of us retaking the entire trip, for a nominal fee and arming ourselves with ye olde school video camcorder, she can never get that moment back. None of us can.
This little incident actually caused me to call Apple Support, while on our vacation, to complain about it. And that wasn't the first time. The Apple Support rep was very sympathetic and even confided that she too has lost many memories, trying to shoot video with her iPhone.
To illustrate the point, here is what the Cameras screen looks like, in normal mode versus recording mode. See the difference, with a solid black background?
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| Normal Mode |
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| Recording Mode |
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Now add real life to that screen. Imagine trying to determine whether you are recording anything. Add glare on your iPhone screen. Imagine trying to actually see the red bulb blink on/off, while you struggle to see if the counter is rolling. Oh, wait, you have to focus on your subject, frame the story, perhaps direct things a bit. Better check again to make sure the camera is recording. Even knowing whether you stopped filming is a challenge. This happens all the time to millions of people. Now, here is the screen with some life added, plus minor screen glare, sans blinky.
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| Normal Mode |
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| Recording Mode |
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Over the life of the Camera app, not much has changed. Despite calling Apple Support at least once a year, every year since 2010, we see no significant revisions to the experience. I even emailed Steve Jobs personally (may he rest in peace) about this twice, in the summer of 2010 and 2011.
What design works best for a camera recorder, any recorder really? Why not borrow from designs of the past century? Why re-invent the wheel, when it comes to something so mission critical? Is this obsession with having one button worth the risk?
Apparently, not everyone feels this way. This week, when Google rolled out their
Google Moogle Doodle, they employed traditional recording controls. Stop/play, plus a record button toggle.
Not only is the Moogle a delight to play, it's also very usable. Visually, you know when you are recording and when you are not, thanks to the affordance of 2 toggle buttons. Having stop and record buttons in 2 distinct locations also offers a kind of memory. You know what you pressed or what you will be pressing, based on the location of your finger tip. Again, this is a universal design that we've all learned and used, since the last century.
What do we get by applying the principles of the Google Moogle and other recording devices of the last century to the iPhone Cameras app video recorder? Something like this.
Now you have a stop and record toggle button set. The record button is visually toggled down. The record light stays lit, no blinking, during the entire record process. In addition a progress bar extends across the screen, as it records. The counter stays, but moves down where your eye lives, near the controls. These few changes bring the Camera app back in line with the expectations of Apple product users.
We desire an infinitely usable, useful experience that delights and delivers. Every time. Of course, none of us can get those lost memories back. But with a better iPhone Camera app experience, we can harvest new ones, like catching fireflies on a Summer evening.
