The office desk phone confuses workers in the age of iPhones.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

It does? Maybe I'm used to landline phones.

My phone looks like the one on Trump's desk. No wonder he's always so angry. The phone is VoIP, and it saves messages on my computer's email. In the trash file. I have to dig them out and put them in the inbox.

The article looks as if it ought to have come from The Onion, but it's from The Wall Street Journal.

James R. Hagerty Retweeted:

Dial F for Frustration: The office desk phone confuses workers in the age of iPhones. "I don't even know how to dial out on it."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/its-giant-and-has-like-five-million-buttons-the-office-desk-phone-wont-die-1541432514 … via @WSJ #technews

Link to tweet

[unblock]

1. being used to landlines has nothing to do with it.

modern office voip systems are complicated and not entirely standard. upgrade to different phone model or entirely different phone system and you have to learn how to use your phone all over again in a pointlessly slightly different way.

dial 9 to get out. unless your on the phone in those two conference rooms, in which case don't dial 9.
what is it the fax machine? i don't remember.

what 6-button sequence do i use for a 3-way conference call now? and why did it change?

the interaction with email is cool, i can get my office voicemails emailed to me and hear them on my iphone, so some new features are nice. but there are a lot of constantly changing sequences for features that are largely unchanged.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. With our old phones, I could....

dial someone else in the building with a 5-digit number. Now I have to dial a 10-digit number to reach that person.

[ret5hd]

2. It's voice activated you twits!!!

Just say "Hey Phone! Remind my boss to call me a dumbass!"

I promise...you will be called a dumbass very soon!

[unblock]

8. lol for that feature, my phone is mindwave-activated! i don't even have to say it out loud!

[OriginalGeek]

3. As one of a 2 man department

that manages over 1500 phones for a company with a hundred branch locations, I can relate.

I get trouble tickets from people who can't tell me their extension. It's on the screen. At least 3 times.
Every single new user for the last 15 years has gotten an email the day they started with their extension, phone number and a link to a section of our in-house website that houses user guides I wrote that tell them how to access voicemail, call out and many other features. It has in-depth manuals plus quick start guides. With pictures!

But hey, if it weren't for them, the company probably wouldn't need me so I guess hooray! for them.

[FakeNoose]

4. These things come with a book of instructions - you have to read them

It's amazing how smart you become, once you've read the instructions. I know that Americans - especially men - are averse to reading instructions. And now here we are.

[ret5hd]

5. Read...books? What are these "books" you speak of? English, man! Use English!

[unblock]

9. as a trained engineer, i'm more than capable of figuring it out one way or another.

including rtfm.

but that's not the point. the point is that these phones still have poorly designed user interfaces and the lack of standardization means you have to relearn something every time there's a change. engineers don't like having to solve the same problem over and over again.

some of the smartphone user interfaces are absolutely brilliant, like zooming in with a pinch gesture. completely intuitive. yes, you need to learn it, but as soon as you do, you go ah, wow, and you instantly know it *and will never forget it* because it's so completely intuitive.

most of the crazy button sequences on my desk phone are not remotely intuitive, so, while i can learn them easily enough, if i don't use that particular feature for a month or two, i'll easily forget it and my fingers will revert to the way the previous phone system worked.


good instructions do not excuse a poor user interface.

[JDC]

6. My desk set pairs w my iphone and I use my UC client to drive my phone