Comment 19 for bug 482597

I just had the same problem;

Couldn't find a dial-pad. Assumed there was none. Used twinkle instead.

Having read someones post, I was surprised to notice that he had an image of a dial pad in empathy.
I needed to read the instructions real carefully, because;

1, you can't get to the dial-pad unless you are actually already in an active call
2, once you are in an active call, finding the dial-pad is tricky. You have to KNOW it is there. It is like looking for a secret door in a room. You can open it if you know it is there to find. If you don't know it is there, or perhaps even you know it is there, but not which corner of the room, you never find it!

The best solution I can think of is simple;

On opening the 'New Call' dialog,
the user is presented with not only the 'Account' field and the 'Contact ID:' field, but underneath that (and above the 'Call' and 'Cancel' buttons) there is the dial pad there, by default, nice and visible.

Clicking the dialpad should;

1. Append numbers to the 'Contact ID:' field
2. echo back the DTMF tone back to you

Simple, and intuitive.

The current state of the 'New Call' dialog breaks that good old rule of 'least surprise'.