Emoji flag sort order not intuitive to users
| Originator: | christoph.paeper | ||
| Number: | rdar://28354391 | Date Originated: | 2016-09-18 |
| Status: | Open | Resolved: | |
| Product: | iOS | Product Version: | 10.0 and earlier |
| Classification: | Reproducible: | Always |
Area: Keyboard Summary: Emoji flags are just graphical representations of Unicode region indicators, which consist of two characters each and map almost 1:1 to ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 codes. From a technical point of view it makes absolute sense to sort them alphabetically by code, but this is opaque to users. Steps to Reproduce: 1. select the Flags section from the emoji soft keyboard 2. try to find the “American flag” or the “flag of Great Britain” Expected Results: Users quickly find the right flag they’re looking for. This includes flags of their or their ancestors’ home countries, current, previous and future locations, previously used flags, locations of contacts, trending countries in the news … These should either be highlighted (e.g. by size or color) or appear (also) on top of the list. Actual Results: People accidentally use the wrong flag, even for their own country, e.g. the Liberian 🇱🇷 or Malaysian 🇲🇾 instead of the US flag 🇺🇸 – and get ridiculed for it. Some flags are virtually indistinguishable at small size or bad lighting, e.g. Ireland 🇮🇪 vs. Italy 🇮🇹 and Netherlands 🇳🇱 vs. Luxembourg 🇱🇺, or are just the same colors in reverse order, e.g. Poland 🇵🇱 and Indonesia 🇮🇩, or rotated, e.g. Hungary 🇭🇺 and Italy 🇮🇹, or differ only in an (optional) emblem, e.g. Italy 🇮🇹 and Mexico 🇲🇽. Other people abuse a national flag as a stand-in for a non-existing one, e.g. the Chilenian flag 🇨🇱 for Texas. Users frequently fail to find the flag they’re looking for altogether and complain. They are also looking for non-national flags in that section, e.g. White 🏳, Black 🏴 and Checkered Flag 🏁 or the ZWJ sequences Rainbow Flag (“Gay Pride” / “Peace”) or Skull and Bones (“Jolly Rogers”). A frequent complaint is that “the American flag” is listed almost last instead of (almost) first. Version: iOS 10 and before Notes: iOS 10 offers to replace country names typed in by the flag, but that doesn’t solve the UX issue for those using the graphical search approach. Configuration: any iOS device Attachments:
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