ABSTRACT
This paper reports on work undertaken to explore the interface styles being adopted across telephony products in the fixed, cordless and mobile environments. It reviews the impact of technological developments on the usability of different telephone types. Consideration is also given to the potential for convergence of user interfaces across these types to increase their ease of use. It is recognised that in order to improve the usability of telephones, attention needs to be focused on ‘families’ of products that belong together serving similar users, for similar purposes, in similar contexts of use. However the most important requirement in order to improve telephone usability is conformance to good general human factors principles.
