#Crumbtrail iphone 5

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The Importance of Contact Segregation

Phonebooks should be designed around how people behave naturally in their day-to-day interactions. 

Apple's new phone-book allows you to unwittingly import all of your Facebook contacts:

There's one big beef that people who upgraded or purchased a new iPhone 5 have discovered. If you link the new iPhone 5 to your Facebook profile, it uploads ALL of your Facebook contacts into your phone-book.

Well, technically it's something users DO have control over. However, many don't realize until it's too late just how much of a headache and inconvenience it will become.

Good design isn't about giving people the option of overwhelming themselves, good design is helping to ensure that that doesn't happen.

Why is this a problem?

Imagine you are someone who uses Facebook to keep in touch with people, but you have a lot of "acquaintance" type friends over there as well. That includes old friends from grade school, friends of mutual friends, some people who you've never even met in real life and others who you have on your friends tally as a courtesy. Now, they're all in your phonebook. So, when you try to scroll through this extensive thousand+ person long list, it can be quite daunting.

In fact, the latest chatter on Twitter suggests that most people are baffled by it. See the screenshot below from yesterday. 

A different perspective on contact management:

We remember people based on various factors: Where did we meet them? How well do we know them? Are we close? There is a lot of valuable contextual information around each of our contacts. Based on that contextual information, WE decide how best to connect with them.

I have a doctor friend who prefers to be contacted by texting. Yet another friend only responds if I call him directly. Then another acquaintance likes to chat or send private messages through Facebook. And I have a client who prefers Skype calls. The fascinating thing is that I don't have to remember this. It is all instinctive for me. If I have to get in touch with a specific person, I know exactly what channel, medium or mode to use. This segregation of channels is very crucial for me to be able to operate effectively.

The problem with contact management tools and current-age phone books is that they haven't evolved over time to meet this basic human need.

They force us to bundle people together in one chunk, and sift through them alphabetically. This takes away our ability to segment our contacts based on context or platform, and makes it less intuitive and more chaotic to manage.

Technology is (and should be) about making our life easier.