100 Emails, 20 Dates An SF girl's systematic quest to end her singlehood

Smartphones and other advances in dating technology

iPhone: So intuitive, even someone you're hitting on in a bar can figure it out

One night last week, I met my friend J. for a drink (or three) at a bar (or two). Between bars, we stopped and got sausage sandwiches at Rosamunde's, then took them next door to Toronado, a divey bar that has probably the best beer list in all of San Francisco. Of course, the bar was full. Not packed, but full enough that we knew better than to try to find a table all our own.

"We could sit with those guys," I said, gesturing imprecisely and awkwardly with a beer in one hand and a sausage sandwich in the other. J. went up to two guys at the table right in front of the one I meant.

"Do you mind if we share your table?" she asked. They said that their friends were coming back in.

"How about that table behind them?" I said. Those guys did not have any returning friends, so we sat down, starting eating our delicious sandwiches, and started chatting. One of the guys had just quit his job in a now-or-never moment in order to pursue a dream project (he wouldn't tell us what it was, despite the fact that I offered to sign an NDA on the back of a bar coaster). We raved about the pastries at Tartine and envied the other guy, who lived around the corner from that bakery. It was a fun night--the kind of night that made me deeply appreciate those times when people are willing to share their space with strangers. It opens up some fun conversations.

J. and I, still employed, got up to leave around 10. The cuter of the two guys asked if we'd still be there when he got back from the bathroom, and I said yes. As he left, his friend pulled a GENIUS move! He said, "OK, let's exchange contact info," and passed J. his cell phone so she could enter it herself. SO SMART! I handed that guy my iPhone, entered my info in his, and then his friend came back. I handed him my iPhone, and said, "We're doing a do-it-yourself contact info exchange."

Droid: Is that a Home key or a left arrow? And why does Menu look like a flag?

He handed me his Motorola Droid. I was befuddled.

A slight (possible) disclaimer: I am a diehard Apple fan. I'm writing this on a MacBook Pro. I love my 1st-gen iPhone, which I am back to using after my iPhone 3GS was stolen. I'd be lost without my iPod. If I had an extra $500, I would TOTALLY buy an iPad (though, since I don't, I will wait for the second generation one). But still, I did kind of feel that this was a use case the Android UI designer hadn't thought of.

First, I couldn't figure out how to get the keyboard to open. Then, in horizontal mode, I couldn't read any of the buttons. "Hit the Home button," he said. After staring stupidly at it for a few seconds, I realized that he meant the one that looked like an arrow (win for Apple for designing a button that looks the same in both horizontal and vertical orientation). The screen showed one field, for "Name," and one button: "Done." Would "Done" take me to the next field? I clicked that, then ended up in his address book, feeling like I was totally violating his privacy. I scrolled to my name (of course, toward the end of the alphabet), then couldn't figure out how to get into my record.

"Click the Menu button," he said. (By this point, I felt like a total idiot. I am normally very good with technology.) The "Menu" button probably looks menu-like when holding the screen vertically, but in horizontal view, not so much. I finally managed to enter my name, phone number, and email. I also probably managed to convince him that I was a total dunce, and now that he had my info, he wouldn't want to contact me. Tant pis.

This whole episode taught me a few important lessons:

1. One of the best ways to meet people is by sitting with them: at the bar, at a communal table, or asking to share their table.
2. The whole "DIY give me your number" thing is really brilliant. If everyone at the table is doing it, it takes the pressure off. It's just new friends exchanging info. Also, if you forget the person's name, it's no biggie. They enter in themselves. You look at it when they hand back the phone, and say, "It was nice talking to you, ______." Genius.
3. UI designers should really use this as a test to see how intuitive their UI is. For example, if I had seen that there was another field in the contact form, I would have scrolled down. But I didn't know I needed to scroll down. IT WASN'T ME, I SWEAR! IT WAS BAD UI!!!! I'm half-kidding, but I'm mostly serious.

Editor's note: As I was looking for screenshots to illustrate the weird contact screen, I couldn't find a single image of Droid Contacts in landscape mode. I am taking that as further evidence that Google/Motorola are hiding this error in UI design from the public, and that I am not a technological dunce.