`Airplane mode` is not an intuitive term, how we encourage user tapping it for power saving?

[Fred Lin]

Hi,

TLDR;

`Airplane mode` is going to lack its origin context and we could make the naming more meaningful and motivate user to tap it for power saving.


Long:

The real activity of `Airplane mode` is press to turn off wifi, cell phone, nfc, bluetooth signals at once, then bring those settings back to its state when we turn `Airplane mode` off.

`Airplane mode` is well know term for spec, but since FAA announce they allow use Personal Electronics on plane with wifi, Bluetooth,
The naming is going to lost it's origin purpose.

For most target marketing users in the upcoming year, they might have rare chance to use `Airplane mode` in airplane,
But the Airplane mode button take real estate in their long-press-power menu and utility tray, which does not make sense.


Alternatively, user does have strong motivation disabling cell phone and wifi signals to SAVE their phone BATTERY or turn themselves into do-not-disturb mode in class or meeting.
So, could we change it to a better/intuitive naming/UX to make `Airplane mode` being recognized by our target user and use it properly in their life?


bug issued here
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1090670


Reference:

Press Release – FAA to Allow Airlines to Expand Use of Personal Electronics
http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=15254


regards
--
Fred

[Sebastián Enrique Becerra Cancino]

May should be added like a menu, called "Options to save battery" or more like "battery optimization" adding the actual options to save battery like disabling things when is under a certain battery percentage...

Would be awesome to change the actual shortcut to airplane mode on notifications to just turn on the power save options...

Excellent idea, Fred!

--
Atte.

Sebastián Enrique Becerra Cancino
Facebook: SebaEBC
Twitter: @SebaEBC
Tel.: +56 9 9169 0521

_______________________________________________
dev-gaia mailing list
dev-...@lists.mozilla.org
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-gaia

[Asa Dotzler]

How about "radio silence" or something that actually describes what's
happening? "Flip the radio silence switch to conserve battery when
you're not connecting to the Internet or other devices."

- A

[Peter Dolanjski]

Please note that we're also thinking about a way to get into a Data Savings mode whereby background data is restricted and images are not loaded within apps.

It's obviously not the same thing, but the UX needs to account for these different use cases.

Lastly, there is an initiative around improving battery life.  I could see the need for a battery saver mode.  These use cases really start to overlap, so keep that in mind.

Peter

---

From: "Asa Dotzler" <a...@mozilla.com>
To: mozilla-...@lists.mozilla.org
Sent: Wednesday, 29 October, 2014 11:20:47 AM
Subject: Re: `Airplane mode` is not an intuitive term, how we encourage user        tapping it for power saving?

How about "radio silence" or something that actually describes what's
happening?  "Flip the radio silence switch to conserve battery when
you're not connecting to the Internet or other devices."

- A

On 10/28/14, 8:06 PM, Fred Lin wrote:

[Daniel Holbert]

On 10/29/2014 08:20 AM, Asa Dotzler wrote:
> How about "radio silence" or something that actually describes what's
> happening? "Flip the radio silence switch to conserve battery when
> you're not connecting to the Internet or other devices."

"...and don't need to place or receive calls".

(If we really do try to use a novel presentation / description for this,
this is probably the *most important* piece of information to include.
People depend on their phone working as a phone, so we should be *very*
clear with any functionality that disables the phone part of the phone.)

[Zac Campbell]

That's a great idea!

How about 'Economy mode' ?

[Hubert Figuière]

On 29/10/14 12:27 PM, Zac Campbell wrote:
> That's a great idea!
>
> How about 'Economy mode' ?
>
>
> On 29/10/14 03:06, Fred Lin wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> TLDR;
>>
>> `Airplane mode` is going to lack its origin context and we could make
>> the naming more meaningful and motivate user to tap it for power saving.

Please don't rename "Airplane Mode" to "Economy mode". Just don't. It is
commonly accepted that transmitting devices have an airplane mode and
that's what flight crew instruct passenger to use. Also, power saving
shouldn't disable transmitting function IMHO. Even Samsung got that
right (until you reach lower batter levels and then you don't understand
why nothing works anymore - case in point)



Hub

[Gervase Markham]

On 29/10/14 15:20, Asa Dotzler wrote:
> How about "radio silence" or something that actually describes what's
> happening?

I like "Radio Silence". The term is a phrase in English, sure, but it's
also fairly self-explanatory for those who don't know it.

I don't think the term needs to include an explicit indicator that it
saves battery; "Airplane Mode" doesn't have that, but people soon learn
that you can use it for that.

Gerv

[Geo Mealer]

I see value in keeping the standard name as well, as long as it’s performing the standard function.

While I realize the term won’t be intuitively meaningful to the target market it is A) unique and B) semi-standardized. Both help in associating the functionality to the name, even if the term itself becomes an artifact. Compare “dialer” (there’s no dial), “hang up” (you don’t hang up anything on anything), “rewind” (there’s no tape to wind), etc.

I think there could be a call for a power-saving mode that, among other things, includes the functionality of airplane mode, but I don’t think I’d recommend renaming airplane mode itself.

Geo

[Fred Lin]

Thanks all for feedback.

To `reinvent` Airplane Mode is a debatable and hard-to-happen topic because it's already a semi-standardized term. That's why it needs discussion and your great ideas to make it happen.
That's why we create yet another mobile OS to keep relevant and influence the world (other mobile OS). As Firefox OS developer/UX, we are in a position that could make that change, to better serve our target(emerging market) users.

Since `Airplane Mode` functionality will still be kept and distract user's attention in Sleep Menu/Utility Tray Quick Settings/Settings,
I see the benefit of energy saving & productivity (as described in origin post) to motivate people use it more often. Per user base it could lead to a huge amount of influence.

I've done some quick survey over none-techie friends. Surprisingly most of them know `Airplane Mode` is in their phone(who can't? this option always show in some noticeable place), but merely of them know what Airplane Mode is all about, so they just don't touch it. As I know Airplane mode is not a well known convention like 'dialer' for none-techie people.


BTW Airplane mode functionality is not the same as battery optimization option (If we plan to have it). But it does save battery if user understand enable it also means no incoming phone call & wifi access.


regards
--
Fred


----- 原始郵件 -----
寄件者: "Geo Mealer" <gme...@mozilla.com>
收件者: "Hubert Figuière" <h...@mozilla.com>
副本: dev-...@lists.mozilla.org
寄件備份: 2014 10 月 30 星期四 上午 2:48:48
主旨: Re: `Airplane mode` is not an intuitive term, how we encourage user tapping it for power saving?

[André Jaenisch]

When I look at the airplane icon on my AOTF (v1.1) I'm thinking about
"Um, I'm not going to fly anytime soon, so why is that exposed here?"

After stumbling about some posts mentioning disabling WiFi and mobile data
connection etc. by it (e.g. before going to sleep) I realised, what it has
to do with airplanes.

So my conclusion here is, the UX is misleading. There are circumstances,
where airplane mode could be helpful, but has nothing to do with traveling by
plane.

It's my first smartphone, so even if I'm from Germany I consider myself as
part of Mozilla's target audience :)

Regards,


André

Geo Mealer <gme...@mozilla.com> schrieb am Mi, 29.Okt.14 11:48:

[Geo Mealer]

Andre,

I’ve no doubt my impression is skewed by a number of past devices with “airplane mode,” and I think your opinion is very valuable here!

If we were talking from scratch, I’d agree that it’s a misleading UI. My comparison there might be the floppy disk used as the standard icon for most systems for “Save.” When’s the last time you used a floppy? That would never go out the door nowadays if it were a new design. However, I suspect even future generations (assuming the icon persists) will associate it with the function.

Worth noting that the term is sufficiently established in the mainstream to be used by American flight attendants, though (more re: Fred’s comment about not being known to non-techies).

That said, looking at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane_mode

…I kind of like “offline mode.” It also has harmony with Firefox Desktop’s “Work Offline” option.

Geo

[Mike Nolan]

I'm no UX expert but I can understand why airplane mode was chosen over something such as "battery saving" mode or "offline" mode. When you toggle this functionality, it turns off both wifi, data, and calling. "offline" is generally associated with the internet and phone calls aren't. Battery saving is great and I'm sure many users would like to do that but if you don't correctly inform your users that it also turns off all modes of communication. You might have made a good amount of people pretty miffed at that.

Everyone understands that they can't make calls or use the internet on an airplane. Thus airplane mode. It is far from the perfect solution but I'd have a hard time believing that users would have better UX from changing the name to any of the ones brought up so far.

Here is my idea if we want to push this feature. An operating system is a complicated piece of software and instead of trying to rely on making it intuitive to a fault, maybe we should work on implementing features that will educate the users on what each of the buttons do. Maybe an easy help menu that is always easily accessible?

Just my $0.02. A more informed user always has better UX and this also encourages users to stay in our ecosystem.

[Fred Lin]

`Work offline` or `Offline mode` sounds great to me!

Since FxOS as a browser, `work offline` could be easily grasp as disconnect all modes of communication (hmm...might need some research to confirm it).

And it's a good marketing point, here are some:
* we could seamlessly bring `work offline` feature from desktop to FxOS, to align our product line features.
* it's differentiate from other OS
* skeptics and hesitators doubt that FxOS can't work without internet? Any FxOS user could just tap `work offline` to slap their face!


(my spoiled spirit told me not everyone need to understands something if they have a rare chance to take airplane. It might be make sense to preserve the icon place for Bus Mode or Meeting/Classroom Mode?)

regards
--
Fred


----- 原始郵件 -----

寄件者: "Mike Nolan" <m...@michael-nolan.com>
收件者: "Geo Mealer" <gme...@mozilla.com>
副本: dev-...@lists.mozilla.org, "André Jaenisch" <andre.j...@openmailbox.org>
寄件備份: 2014 10 月 30 星期四 上午 6:39:03

主旨: Re: `Airplane mode` is not an intuitive term, how we encourage user tapping it for power saving?

I'm no UX expert but I can understand why airplane mode was chosen over something such as "battery saving" mode or "offline" mode. When you toggle this functionality, it turns off both wifi, data, and calling. "offline" is generally associated with the internet and phone calls aren't. Battery saving is great and I'm sure many users would like to do that but if you don't correctly inform your users that it also turns off all modes of communication . You might have made a good amount of people pretty miffed at that.

[Gervase Markham]

On 29/10/14 23:42, Fred Lin wrote:
> `Work offline` or `Offline mode` sounds great to me!
>
> Since FxOS as a browser, `work offline` could be easily grasp as
> disconnect all modes of communication (hmm...might need some research
> to confirm it).

It is true that if someone puts their phone in "Offline mode", if they
don't realise that this disables phone calls, they'll work it out just
as soon as they go to make a call and it says "Firefox OS is in offline
mode, and so sending and recieving calls is disabled. Go online? Yes/No".

Gerv

[Frederik Braun]

On 30.10.2014 14:43, Gervase Markham wrote:
> On 29/10/14 23:42, Fred Lin wrote:

>> `Work offline` or `Offline mode` sounds great to me!
>>
>> Since FxOS as a browser, `work offline` could be easily grasp as
>> disconnect all modes of communication (hmm...might need some research
>> to confirm it).
>

> It is true that if someone puts their phone in "Offline mode", if they
> don't realise that this disables phone calls, they'll work it out just
> as soon as they go to make a call and it says "Firefox OS is in offline
> mode, and so sending and recieving calls is disabled. Go online? Yes/No".

This doesn't solve where a user goes offline to save battery, because
they are waiting for an important call ;-)

[Mike Nolan]

Yes but they won't be notified that they can't receive phone calls until they try to make a call. I think a good concession if we really wanted to change the name would be to pop up a warning message describing what you are turning off when you toggle the mode. Does that seem reasonable?

On Oct 30, 2014 9:43 AM, "Gervase Markham" <ge...@mozilla.org> wrote:

On 29/10/14 23:42, Fred Lin wrote:

> `Work offline` or `Offline mode` sounds great to me!
>
> Since FxOS as a browser, `work offline` could be easily grasp as
> disconnect all modes of communication (hmm...might need some research
> to confirm it).

It is true that if someone puts their phone in "Offline mode", if they
don't realise that this disables phone calls, they'll work it out just
as soon as they go to make a call and it says "Firefox OS is in offline
mode, and so sending and recieving calls is disabled. Go online? Yes/No".

Gerv

[Sam Foster]

This is a case in point of developed-world thinking:

"Everyone understands that they can't make calls or use the internet on an airplane. Thus airplane mode."

I think this is definitely a question for the user-research team, and one which needs to be presented in the context of the target market and demographic. Maybe "airplane mode" is a familiar enough idea even for people who don't fly regularly that they'll know what it means. Possibly not. I'm not sure our intuitions will be a useful guide in this case. Maybe so many of the metaphors we use in a mobile UI are foreign that it really doesnt matter how we represent it as most users are learning by rote anyway?

/Sam

[André Jaenisch]

Geo,

well, I assume, you're from USA, so flying is something you may have
experienced by now.

But doesn't Mozilla aim at _emerging markets_ with its OS?
I mean, just look at how many people can _afford_ a Firefox OS phone in and
around India. I cannot imagine, many of them have the money to fly.

Try to think outside of your comfort zone here, please.

Best regards,


André Jaenisch

Geo Mealer <gme...@mozilla.com> schrieb am Mi, 29.Okt.14 15:21:

[Geo Mealer]

Andre,

I’m not at all ignoring that or trying to limit to my own perspective, only responding to Fred’s assertion that only techies know the term. I did mention a couple messages back that the name might not be as meaningful to the target market.

OTOH, we should all think of the knowledge expansion and global integration that will happen here too, and be careful not to underestimate the market as well. People might be insulated from these sorts of terms—until they have a Firefox OS phone and a web browser, after which I imagine they might encounter them pretty quickly.

With that in mind, it would be most useful for them to have a vocabulary in common with the majority of others on the internet. That suggests considering aligning with some sort of commonly used terminology and not just forging out on our own. Whether it has to be “airplane” is a different question.

Geo

[Gervase Markham]

On 30/10/14 19:52, André Jaenisch wrote:
> But doesn't Mozilla aim at _emerging markets_ with its OS?
> I mean, just look at how many people can _afford_ a Firefox OS phone in and
> around India. I cannot imagine, many of them have the money to fly.

One doesn't have to have flown to understand this concept.

Does Android call it "Flight Mode" in all locales?

Gerv

[Fred Lin]

Hi,

I could make my assertion more clear:

1. Most people knows there's the Airplane Mode in their phone, (because it shows in many place)
2. Most people don't understand what Airplane Mode does
3. Most people don't use it

In my survey the answer is y/y/y. And the result leads me to toss this topic: make people re-known Airplane Mode by giving it a intuitive term, so user has confidence to use it in many circumstance.


regards
--
Fred

----- Origin -----

[André Jaenisch]

Hello,

I'm currently running a small poll on my blog on this topic.
I'll report back in a week from now about the results.

After chatting with my wife about Airplane mode, she suggested naming it
something like 'N/A' mode or 'Do not disturbed', because that is, what most
users toggle it on for.

On the other hand, Robert "KaiRo" Kaiser pointed out, that there is some legal
prescription in the E.U. Maybe he can write more about it … hence I CC'ed him.

Regards,


André

Fred Lin <fl...@mozilla.com> schrieb am Fr, 31.Okt.14 22:41:

[Geo Mealer]

Do Not Disturb is more problematic, unfortunately. I can't speak to Android, but on iOS that has a more specific meaning, which is to quiet alerts on notifications and incoming phone calls (but still receive them, just save them for viewing later).

[André Jaenisch]

Hello,

Thomas Eschenhagen (I assume, Prof. MD) asked on my blog, that he would like to
have a setting to switch between those three options:

* Airplane mode: Turn off all senders (BT, WiFi etc)
* Do not disturb mode: Turn off all receivers (don't bother me)
* Powersave mode: Turn off both, senders and receivers.

Is that viable?

I'd go for user research team here, too. Can someone cc their list?

Regards,


André Jaenisch

Geo Mealer <gme...@mozilla.com> schrieb am So, 02.Nov.14 15:17:

[Fred Lin]

Hi all,


I've a quick FB frieds survey with 4 questions, the last question is appended since I have too many techie friends and the first 3 does not lead to a distinguishable result. I get 40 reply and here's the question and the result.

I distinguish techie/non techie people by industry. (If my friends works in soft/IT company or has ee/cs degree, I'll category them into techie)
There's 32 techie and 8 non-techie.

(Note the survey is done in Taiwan, where 70+% has a smartphone, and I bet all my friends has one, or more)


1. Do you know there's the 'Airplane Mode' in your phone?

40 (all) answers 'y'(yes)



2. Do you know what does Airplane Mode mean?

Almost everyone answers 'y'. Only 1 of non techie answers 'n' (no)

(maybe I should ask do you know Airplane Mode's functionality)



3. Will you use this function when you not on airplane?

6 techie (6/32) and 2 non techie (2/8) answers 'n'



4. If we change the naming of Airplane Mode, does it help you understand it more？

6 techie (6/19) says it helps. 5 non techie (5/8) says it helps



I saw a very tight bound that if people already know what Airplane mode is and it's functionality, they don't want change the name.

regards
--
Fred

----- Origin -----

[Natalia Martinez-Winter]

we could maybe be run this kind of survey at a larger scale through our
FB pages, especially those run by our communities ?

--
Firefox OS <https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/os/>
*Natalia Martinez-Winter*

[André Jaenisch]

Hello,

so here are the results of my small blog:

Do you know, wherefore airplane mode is good?
- I even used it!: 14 votes (82%)
- No idea: 3 votes (18%)
- Ofc, see Wikipedia: 0 votes (0%)

So it looks like we can go for it.

Regards,


André

André Jaenisch <andre.j...@openmailbox.org> schrieb am Sa, 01.Nov.14 18:15:

[Jan Keromnes]

I don't think these polls are representative, especially if we consider that Firefox OS' target audience includes newcomers to smartphones and to Internet.

I agree that "Airplane mode":

- is a confusing name for smartphone first-timers / people who haven't been in an airplane in the last 7 years.

- is pointless regarding flight security, because aircraft equipment has been interference-safe since the 1960s.

However:

- It's an established name, and a quick search on the web explains what it does. Renaming it removes that benefit for newcomers.

- It has many occurrences on the web, e.g. in articles talking about smartphone battery-life or privacy. You'd have to mentally translate "Airplane mode" to its new name if we change it.

- There is no good replacement name that works across all locales (I do like "Offline mode" or "Off-grid mode", but they'd confuse existing smartphone users and wouldn't be fully transparent to newcomers anyway).

- Most airlines will probably keep asking you to use it for the foreseeable future.

- It's actually not entirely pointless in flight / rail / other transports, because it prevents your phone from frantically yelling around for available base stations, protecting your battery life, and yourself from radiations (planes are basically metallic tubes that reverberate radiation around like a microwave - I wouldn't want everyone's phone in my flight to continuously "scream in fury").

I feel bad about promoting status quo and deprecated concepts over potential innovation, but I do believe keeping "Airplane mode" is the right thing to do here.

[Naoki Hirata]

Just as a side note, on some devices you can turn wifi back on while in airplane mode as some airlines allow for wifi on the planes.

Regards,
Naoki

On Nov 5, 2014, at 1:40 PM, André Jaenisch <andre.j...@openmailbox.org> wrote:

> Hello,
>

> Thomas Eschenhagen (I assume, Prof. MD) asked on my blog, that he would like to
> have a setting to switch between those three options:
>
> * Airplane mode: Turn off all senders (BT, WiFi etc)
> * Do not disturb mode: Turn off all receivers (don't bother me)
> * Powersave mode: Turn off both, senders and receivers.
>
> Is that viable?
>
> I'd go for user research team here, too. Can someone cc their list?
>
> Regards,
>
>
> André Jaenisch
>
> Geo Mealer <gme...@mozilla.com> schrieb am So, 02.Nov.14 15:17:
>> Do Not Disturb is more problematic, unfortunately. I can't speak to Android, but on iOS that has a more specific meaning, which is to quiet alerts on notifications and incoming phone calls (but still receive them, just save them for viewing later).
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "André Jaenisch" <andre.j...@openmailbox.org>
>>> To: dev-...@lists.mozilla.org
>>> Cc: Ka...@KaiRo.at
>>> Sent: Saturday, November 1, 2014 10:15:25 AM
>>> Subject: Re: `Airplane mode` is not an intuitive term, how we encourage user tapping it for power saving?
>>>