Re: Text messaging...

on 02/17/2004 21:28, Martin Michalowski at [email protected] wrote:

I thought I would weigh in on the SMS issue.  In my view, SMS buddies aren't
really buddies in the IM sense.  Therefore I don't think they should be
grouped together with regular IM buddies (online or offline).  I think
adding an icon to the toolbar and a menu item with a key shortcut for
sending text messages would be great.  When the icon was pressed or the menu
item selected, a window would pop up with a pull down menu of all your SMS
"buddies", a textbox for writing the message, and send and cancel buttons.
You would then choose the "bubby" you wanted to send a text message to from
the pull down menu and type the message in the textbox.  Once done hit send
and the message is sent and the window closes.  Adding these SMS buddies
would involve modifying the add buddy item to include a checkbox signifying
that you were adding an SMS bubby.  Checking the box could grey out all
irrelevant fields and maybe fill in the buddy id box with a +1 so you would
just have to add the cell number and an alias (if wanted).
In my view, SMS buddies shouldn't show up online or offline because for cell
phones that have AIM installed, the buddy would (and should) be considered
as an IM user and therefore you can send him messages like all other users,
no need to text message.
Sorry for the rant, just thought I'd pass my ideas on.

Martin

    I don't know that so much should go into the issue of shuffling the SMS
contacts out of sight.  Owing [in part] to useage charges, SMS messaging
isn't exacly the next big fad.  This fact makes it less worth the effort.
But, it is handy and still worth pursuing, I think.  But, if it's not
readily visible --like any other contact--, users are less likely to know
the feature exists.  The "out of sight, out of mind" rule is applicable
here.  And should that happen, as would be consistent with the average
users, all that development effort will have been wasted.  This approach
also would kill the consistency of grouping multiple contacts for any one
person, since the SMS item would not be groupable, then.  In the long run, I
figure adding an account type (possbly represented by an image of a cell
phone or something) and coding it for only the relevant data entry fields
would be smarter.  In fact, I think it might be faster to implement.

   The way I tend to look at is not as a matter of buddies.  But, rather, of
contacts.  It's all just a matter of relays.  And an SMS contact is just as
valid a contact in that sense as any other.  It's no different than sending
a message to a Yahoo buddy who's not online.  You can still do it.  And
they'll get the message, eventually, generally speaking.  But, they're still
not online at the time of sending, just like what can happen with sending an
SMS message.

   Keep in mind that I'm also looking at this whole issue from a technical
support point of view.  It's been my thing for about 5 years, now.  All
computer users have habits.  And there are certain habits that follow along
with certain operating systems.  One that is common with Windows and Mac
users, if more pronounced among the latter, is the habit of expecting the
obvious and apparent.  In an icon driven app, like Fire, menu bars are less
noticed/used.  The more klicking the user has to go through to achieve
something, the less likely they are to even bother with it.  And if they go
through the "Add Buddy" process, only to find the new buddy isn't on the
buddy list, there will be confusion.  So, by my point of view, burying an
SMS feature to menu bar access, and separating it from other contacts, would
play against the point of even developing the feature at all.

-- 
   James Scott Coward [





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