iPhone 5

source: Forbes

Product Description
The iPhone 5 is the latest smartphone released by Apple.

Target population
The iPhone 5 is targeted at users of Apple products and non-Apple users alike; basically anyone who is in the market for a smartphone.

Heuristics

Visibility of System Status
The visibility of status can differ from application to application, but when using a default phone feature such as the Settings or iTunes, the phone indicates that it is still processing through a little loading circle located on the top bar on the left, next to the reception indicator.

While it does not explicitly tell the user what is going on, it does let the user know that something is being loaded or the phone is still working in the background. If the loading circle is still in the top bar, it could explain why a program is not working properly, or if there are any elements of an application are missing.

Use of the loading circle is not necessarily uniform across all applications, particularly on third-party applications; but it is common practice for a similar loading circle to be used to indicate that a program or application is loading.

The iPhone also uses sounds, vibration and alert pop-ups to let users know about various changes in the phone's status. When the phone is plugged into a power source and charging, it will make a sharp, flute-like noise; if the phone is on silent, the phone will vibrate instead. This indicates that

Match Between System and Real World
The phone is controlled primarily though touch-screen, which modern smartphone users will already be familiar with. The general controls are standard amongst other touch-screen phones; unlocking the phone requires the user to slide their finger across the screen and/or enter a numerical password. 

Even a user with no previous experience using the iPhone would know how to navigate the lock screen: it clearly says "slide to unlock" with an arrow pointing in the direction it should slide in, and provided that the screen is not damaged, completing this action will unlock the phone. 

However, the phone's lock screen has another feature which is not as intuitive: the camera shortcut. Next to the unlock area, there's an image of a camera that could be construed as a button that must be clicked on. In reality, the icon must be slid upwards to go straight to the camera function, but this is not evident at first glance. 

Once the lock screen is out of the way, the menu screen is fairly simple to operate. Navigation between screens just requires a simple slide-swipe, and the number of pages that are available is indicated at the bottom of the icons, right above the dock. 

This feature has three main purposes: it tells users how many pages there are, what page they are currently on, and it indicates to first-time users that navigation of the menu goes sideways, rather than up and down. It is simple, but effective.

Flexibility and Freedom of Use
One of the defining features of Apple products is their sleek, minimalist design, which is uniform throughout all their products. The homescreens for the iPad, iPod and iPhone are all the same and cannot easily be changed or customised by the user. Icons for applications can be moved around from screen to screen, but they are always snapped into predefined columns. While there are third-party applications that can change how the phone looks, and adds extra customisation features, there is no way to do this through the system without jail-breaking it.

Recognition Rather than Recall
Though it is the fifth incarnation of Apple's smartphone and it has a slightly larger screen than its predecessors, the iPhone 5 has the same lock and homescreen, the same menu layout. 

Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
One of the defining features of an Apple product is its attention to aesthetics and pride in minimalist design; the iPhone 5 is no exception. The phone is thinner and lighter than its predecessors, with a larger retina-display screen. 

Help and Documentation
Apple products are renowned for their emphasis on making sure the user gets the best experience out of their products. This is evident throughout the purchasing process: their stores are big, white, and full of light and glass, their products come in white, minimalistic boxes, and even unboxing a new Apple product becomes an anticipated event. In that vein, there is little documentation that comes inside the box for the iPhone 5, and what is available is stylised and does not contain any depth of information on how to use the product.

This could be because by now, the product is so ubiquitous and simple that it is assumed anyone can use it. The operation manuals for Apple products are available for download in PDF form on their website, but this assumes that their users have access to the internet and are able to download and read a 14MB PDF file.

Conclusion
While the iPhone 5 is sound in some respects, it does fail on a few heuristics -- specifically the Help and Documentation and Flexibility and Freedom of Use. Apple's minimalistic philosophy may play well from a marketing point of view, but as this evaluation has shown, it comes at a usability cost.

However, it is a very intuitive system, and its users are getting increasingly technologically savvy, so where it fails on help and documentation is becoming less and less of an issue.