Apple

Case study

iPhone with camera app and Siri open
iPhone with camera app open

Overview

Role: Researcher

Timeline: 2 weeks

Tools: Figma

Question: How can Apple make its products more accessible?

Background:

Apple is one of the leaders in the innovation of technology. Apple’s products, Siri and voice command, both only do such a limited amount of actions for users and could be improved to help users more and could have a wider range of abilities for everyone.

This all began when I wanted to take a picture of myself, from far away, and without having to go back to my phone hit a button over and over.

*If you have an iPhone feel free to try and take pictures on your phone without clicking a button (The solution is after my page summary)*

Summary

  • Lots of users tried to use Siri

    • Siri is unable to take pictures

    • Lots of questions about Siri's limited functionality

  • Current solutions are too difficult to figure out or cost money

    • Voice commands and shortcuts are hidden and still hard to figure out

    • The Apple Watch is expensive

  • Difficulty in buttonless photo capture identified

  • Most users don't encounter needing to take a picture without a button

  • Majority resorted to searching for solutions

    • Searching up the solution didn’t work right away for most users

  • Advocacy for a more direct voice-activated photo capture method

  • Proposed solution: Empower Siri to take photos directly using a voice command

Recommended solution to taking pictures without clicking a button

My user journey

User: Myself

Goal: take a picture with iPhone using your voice
(given to myself when I wanted to take pictures but had no one around to help)
(this is all while using AirPods)

Pain points

  • Didn’t know that users weren’t able to take pictures using Siri no matter what

  • Was already dealing with setting up my phone w/out a tripod and not being able to focus

  • Getting the accessibility settings to work was not fun

    • Had to be clear

    • Had to say “turn up the volume” exactly every time

      • Forgot the “the” a lot

  • Forgot to turn off accessibility settings

Participant user journeys:

User 1

Pain Points

  • Was looking through camera options a lot

  • Tried to use Siri but wouldn’t work

    • Had to set up Siri

    • Got frustrated that Siri wouldn’t work

  • Had to search up solution

    • Didn't find solution in first few searches

  • Ended up finishing after looking through a few search results

User 3

Pain Points

  • Didn’t know what qualified as clicking the button

    • Tried to look for something that wasn’t themself to click the button

  • Got frustrated that their voice and Siri weren’t working

  • Couldn’t search up solution

  • Wasn’t able to figure out a solution

User 3

Pain Points

  • Wasn’t able to get Siri to take a picture

  • Wasn’t able to figure out a way to take picture without using a button

  • Didn't understand what the point was

    • No problem with needing to take picture without clicking a solution

Conclusion:

  • Taking pictures without using a button on the phone is difficult

  • Lots of people didn’t understand the point of the study

    • Most people are not running into a problem that requires them to take a picture without clicking a button

  • Most people searched up the solution

    • Most people were not able to figure out the solution through their first search

  • Most people tried using Siri

    • Siri is an assistant on the phone but wasn’t able t assist on taking a picture

  • The solution is also so specific and not directly telling the phone to take a picture

My thoughts:

  • You can take pictures without clicking your iPhone button by using the Apple Watch

    • Not everyone can afford an Apple Watch

    • You shouldn’t be required to buy an extra product to be able to access a simple action

  • There needs to be a more direct way of taking pictures with your voice other than voice commands

  • Siri needs to be more useful

    • Whenever I find myself using Siri to search something up it gives me search results and doesn’t tell me anything

      • If I wanted search results I would have searched it up or asked Siri “search up [topic]”

Common thoughts:

  • Siri doesn’t do that much

  • What’s the point in Siri if Siri can’t help

  • I would have never thought that’s how you take a picture without clicking a button

  • Is there not a better way to do this

  • Is there really a way to do this

Solution:

  • Since so many users tried to use Siri to take pictures, give it the ability to take pictures

    • Siri can open the camera app with “Say cheese” but that’s it

    • If someone needs Siri to open the app then they may need Siri to take a picture as well

    • Overall focusing on Siri to be more of a helper will help lots of people

      • If Siri is able to help take pictures there could be more added

        • Siri swiping in applications for users

        • Siri being able to use certain apps better

          • Asking Siri to play the correct playlist on Spotify is hard

    • This would all lead to Siri having a better user experience and more people using it