How Apple violates customer agency and ruins the list-item paradigm for no reason

Apple has long prided itself on its user-friendly Graphical User Interface.
Apple fans have long trusted Apple to make the best decisions about their GUI and therefore they have relinquished all agency when it comes to how IOS operates.

When Apple makes a decision, fanboys are there to completely eviscerate anyone who doesn’t like the change or who feels that Apple made a poor decision. This goes a long way towards Apple never having to re-think IOS. When surrounded by a horde of extremely vociferous “Yes-people”, you tend to lose track of your original goals and guidelines.

I have to believe that this is the case with the terrible decisions Apple has made regarding the Recent Calls list. This decision has violated the list paradigm in a failed attempt to improve user efficiency. The problem is that it is counter-intuitive and presents a considerable risk to users. And when considering the functionality they have baked in is more easily handled with the same number of user interactions, there is no excuse for this mistake.

How it works now

When viewing your “Recent Calls”, you are given a list of call log entries for incoming and outgoing calls. Clicking on any of these call log entries automatically dials and connects to the number or contact represented in the entry. To see the call log details for an entry, you have to click the circle-I icon for “information”

How it should work

When viewing your “Recent Calls” and given a list of call log entries, clicking the list item should give you the details available in the call log entry. The visual display of call log entries should have an icon that allows you to initiate a callback easily (see User Agency below).

When you look at a list of recent photos and click a photo, your iPhone doesn’t take a photo. When you look at a list of recent calendar entries, clicking an entry does not initiate a new calendar item. When you click a Voicemail entry, you aren’t connected to the other person’s voicemail.

In short, clicking on a list item opens the list item. In the case of recent calls, the list item is a call log entry. Clicking it should, without a doubt, open the call log entry. It is logically inconsistent to be asked to click the Information button for the default behavior expected of a list item. Not to mention the fact that the information button is a terrible UI choice regardless.

Sidenote: Information versus Details

When someone is looking for information about a topic, they are looking for general information. You ask the info desk where you can find books on a subject in a library. Even then, the information person will tell you “Second floor towards the back”
In a call log entry, you already have the information about the call log entry. What you want is details about the call log entry, so the information button seems like it should give you a diagram of the call log entry describing why some entries have numbers and some have contact names, for example.

Info is analogous to HELP in every context. Nobody thinks of clicking a help button for details. So, when the information button is repeated for each item, it looks stupid and the functionality is counter intuitive. If you mean details, find a way to express details. Or better yet, use the default behavior of every other list item in existence and if you want details about an information entry, click the entry itself.

Apple used to have a right-facing triangle which clearly indicated that you could open the call log entry. This info button is stupid and useless. One of my least favorite buttons/icons in IOS.

But it’s more efficient to call back with click.

If you believe that people are actually calling people back, it is no more efficient than if you replaced the general info button with a Callback icon or Phone Icon. While information seems like help information, a Phone icon or Callback icon would clearly indicate that you wanted to call that number back. Ideally, you could allow a long-click to select from the array of contact options from the contact in the list and contact them the way you preferred.

And don’t get me started about how the right to privacy when making a call should be encoded into the Phone app. I should be able to select, “Private” before connecting to obscure my caller id. A simple feature not available in the Phone app.

Call Agency on the iPhone.

The iPhone belongs to you and you should have complete agency over your phone. Because you have a service provider that allows you to use their equipment to make phone calls or use the internet, you have an agreement with them that outlines how and when you will use their service.

Apple has no right to infringe on your arrangement with your service provider. They should never be allowed to connect a phone call without your approval. Period.
If they want to deliver you to the Phone Pad screen with a phone number already entered so you can press the Connect button to dial, that would be well within the acceptable parameters for a phone manufacturer or app provider.

Nobody except you should ever be allowed to connect through your service provider. Period.

To get around this, however, Apple could ask you for permission by having a setting that allowed Apple to automatically connect your phone to someone across your third-party service provider. If I allow Apple to automatically connect, then I am still maintaining my agency over my phone, and I have not been violated by Apple. If I say no, Apple can still launch the Phone App and dial the number, it just can’t connect.

This should be true for every Application. No one should ever be allowed to initiate a connection through your service provider without your permission. Period.

This is common sense.

Why does it matter?

Because often, when checking your list of calls, you don’t want to talk to the person who called you. If you mistakenly think you can swipe the call log entry to delete it, you are automatically connected to your stalker who now starts calling you relentlessly. If you want to see when your bill collector called, you click the entry and now your bill collector has verified your phone number and you will never get them to stop. Perhaps your boss called you at midnight and you were out drinking and missed the call. You wanted to see when they called to see if it was an emergency and now you are calling them at 3:30am after leaving the bar.This could be an end to your job over a choice that Apple made. Apple should not be allowed to jeopardize any aspect of your life for their convenience or preferences.

The biggest problem is that once you have made the mistake of pressing the recent call log entry, you are screwed. You can’t cancel the action in time to avoid showing up on the other person’s call log. A sudden call to your mother at 3 am is enough to drive her crazy with fear that you needed help and she wasn’t there. When really, you just fat-fingered the recent call list by accident.

No matter how you look at it, the only advantage you could possibly get from this paradigm-violating poor decision on Apple’s part is that you could easily call someone back with one touch. Adding the Phone Icon to the entry list instead of the stupid information icon would facilitate this same one-touch functionality while also being much more intuitive. Nobody is going to click a phone icon and not expect to call someone But every day, someone is clicking a call log entry and calling someone they wish they hadn’t called..

A truce

Though this is just one of many complaints that I have about Apple’s tendency to steal agency from its users and subject them to wildly subjective interface options that simply suck, I can see a simple solution that would allow them to avoid having to admit what a stupid choice they made while also showing some integrity by adhering to common sense standards. Here are some simple settings that would allow users to use the phone the way it is, or return to common sense standards and use the phone the way it should be:

In Settings:: Phone App add the following:

• Let Apple Automatically Connect to Whomever They Want, Whenever They Want, For Any Reason,
• or Let me approve all outgoing calls BEFORE they are connected.

or maybe:

• Automatically Call Back Recent Calls, or
• Require Confirmation Before Calling Back Recent Calls.

or even:

• Click to Call Back / Click Info for Details, or

• Click for Details / Click the Phone Icon to connect.

This is an annoying problem that many if not all users face. There should never be a way to accidentally call someone. You should always have to intend to call someone.

Furthermore, lists have default behaviors that we have come to expect. Violating this list of call log entries by establishing a bizarre and abusive action makes Apple seem to think they know what’s best for users despite what they want. If nothing else, it is disrespectful and counter-intuitive. If nothing else, it is contrary to Apple’s image and they should make this change and celebrate it as champions of user agency by giving users the false belief they have some control over their own phones. Maybe Apple could spin it to make more money from users like myself who are stuck using Apple products because their family members like the rights-violating Find My app more than they respect individual autonomy.

Regardless, Apple needs to change the Recent Calls list.