Alice.com just released their first iPhone application. It provides access to all of the abilities available on its website which should prove very useful for regular users of the service including myself. At first glance, however, it appears as though the app could be a usability nightmare for some people.

The interface, while clean and easy on the eyes much like its web-based parent, has not fully adopted iPhone UI “etiquette.” Information and action buttons feel packed in and some buttons are just difficult to view. Buttons for adding items to the cart and viewing further information are tiny and laid out in close proximity to other tiny buttons.

The Reorder Alerts screen provides three actions (Fix, Delay, and Order) for each item suggested for reordering. Each button is so small and close to the others that this could provide major headaches for those that aren’t super-precise or small-fingered. The “View” order button in the upper-right corner is also very small, although conceivably any touch placed near it will trigger the cart view since it’s the only option in the surrounding area. Even the “Back” button seems a bit undersized compared to most well-designed iPhone app UIs.

The coupon view shares the same potential usability pitfalls. The Info and Add buttons are undersized and very close to each other.

Alice.com could do its users a huge favor by hiding the action buttons for each item behind a swipe gesture. Tweetie 2 does this very well and it’s easy to both understand and use. The swipe gesture is widely used by other apps and has become an expected feature. This would save some serious screen real estate—something for which it seems Alice was hard pressed.

The bottom navigation buttons are also too light, lacking enough contrast against the background color of the navigation row.

I’m hoping that Alice’s employees will start to use their own app and realize its weak points, although wouldn’t you think they’d have done that pre-public release? Here’s to version 1.1.