HTC has revealed its new U11 flagship smartphone, introducing its shortcut squeeze feature called Edge Sense, which allows phone interaction when it’s squeezed in a particular way. Project Manager at Testbirds, Chinasa George, suspects that the new feature is interesting, but should be tested by the public before being sold in stores.
Instead of pushing buttons or touching screens, the tech detects two different short and long squeeze forms, which both work opposite to each other — depending on if the phone screen is on or off and what app is turned on.
Users will have the ability to expand their squeeze functions through settings, be it turning on the torch, launching an app, starting an audio recording or any other phone functions, allowing consumers to change what the squeezing does once it is for sale in stores.
George believes that the features should be tested under customer innovation. “The Squeeze is a very interesting feature, which has the potential to alter the way we interact with our mobile devices. However, when launching such a flagship feature, it’s critical that it’s tested by target users,” advised George.
Customer innovation
“It’s a matter of debunking assumptions. In the case of the HTC U11, it’s of utmost importance to the phone’s commercial success that the assumptions of the product’s designers match up with the reality of how end-users will utilise this feature,” he added.
George proclaimed that targeting customers and letting them sample products for an extended period of time before collecting feedback and buying the product should be essential.
“Customer satisfaction can be achieved through end-to-end testing. Target customers should have the opportunity to live with the product for one or two weeks, and then collate feedback,” added George.
“Companies spend millions on hiring creative minds, but sometimes customers are the most creative person who should get given the opportunity to innovate further.”
Consumers will be able to buy and try out the new tech from the first week of June in UK mobile stores.
Written from press release by Leah Alger
