Observation Blog Post #2 (Motorola L6 )
What is the 'thing' you are observing?
The Motorola L6
What is the purpose of it?
It is a cellular phone that doubles up as a WAP page browser, a camera with video capability, and a low capacity mp3 player.
How is it a part of one's everyday life?
The L6 integrates everyday electronic gadgets (as mentioned above) that are otherwise too bulky or would be unreasonably many.
How is it designed well?
Its slim and flat form factor is the hallmark of its design. To achieve this, the keypad has been made of anodized aluminum with a touch of rubber for better grip. It also assumes a wider profile than your average sized clamshell free phone. It also employs a colorful and intuitive graphical user interface, with many of its applications utilizing Java applets for richer texture and animation.
It comes mainly in two stylish hues: silver-metallic and jet black. The L6's simple yet stylish design has earned it many accessories from unaffiliated companies (OEM), so one is never short of appearance options.
How is it designed not so well?
The L6's flat profile exposes a center button which on pressing leads to the "Games" menu. As a result, in case one forgot to lock the keypad and accidentally pressed the phone's front panel the phone would inadvertently load java games—which use up a lot of the battery. This has the potential of leaving one stranded with a dead phone.
Also its extra flat integrated keypad has a bit of a learning curve to it due to the reduced key travel distance and space in between keys.
Having made its debut well before the iPhone era, this phone has no touch screen functionality. It also has a much lower screen resolution compared to phones released post iPhone.
On the software front, the phone is annoying in that even after putting the phone on silent mode alarms still go off as per previous sound settings… a not too discrete way of informing people that the meeting's being going on long enough!
What improvements would you make?
To prevent unintended loading of the computer games which are a huge drain on the power resources, the projecting center button on the L6 should point to some other 'harmless' feature such as the SMS menu.
To further make the L6 user-friendly and easier to use, there should be the option of installing embossed rubber keypads to facilitate easier and faster timing for those customers willing to sacrifice on thickness.
Anything else?
The L6, like the Motorola RAZR (Razor) is past its prime hence any dramatic changes on it would do little on the part of attracting or retaining customers. This is because today's phone user demands PDA-like functionality from their cell phones, many of which [PDA's] have yet to reduce to the L6's slimness—the whole point of the L6.
Dennis Odhiambo
