iPod *not* so easy to use?!
http://news.independent.co.uk/digita...p?story=508187
Apparently, there are people who struggle with importing CDs to iTunes and can't figure out its controls. I'm not a fan of the idea that your designs have to treat users like idiots (the metaphor of the little old lady user), but apparently people are really perplexed by this thing.
I can't imagine making CD importing easier, but I have dealt with people who can't quite make thier way around the iPod's UI at first. They keep trying to "click" on the scroll wheel, and miss the center button entirely.
Even so, it was the last thing I expected to hear compaints about. What could be done about importing?! I could see Apple calling some attention to identifying the center button, but, again, what else could make it simpler? Methinks some people just give up easily.
Apparently, there are people who struggle with importing CDs to iTunes and can't figure out its controls. I'm not a fan of the idea that your designs have to treat users like idiots (the metaphor of the little old lady user), but apparently people are really perplexed by this thing.
I can't imagine making CD importing easier, but I have dealt with people who can't quite make thier way around the iPod's UI at first. They keep trying to "click" on the scroll wheel, and miss the center button entirely.
Even so, it was the last thing I expected to hear compaints about. What could be done about importing?! I could see Apple calling some attention to identifying the center button, but, again, what else could make it simpler? Methinks some people just give up easily.
Comments
Some music fans complain they have to upgrade their computer to get the iPod to work. Others report spending hours or even weeks transferring just a few tracks from their CD collection to the new player.
i mean, seriously. how is that even possible? hours or weeks transferring just a few tracks? if you can transfer a single track, then you can do them all. it can't take hours, even with the largest iPods on the market.
the only part i believe is that there are firms sprining up to convert all of your CD's to mp3's for you. that is time consuming, even if you know exactly what you're doing. once you have your collection done, it's easy.
this article reads like it's impossible to use the iPod, hence the industry. i read it as it takes a long time to convert all of your CD's, hence the industry.
It's only the EASIEST thing in the world to do, next to falling off a log, I suppose.
Further evidence in my ongoing "some people just shouldn't own computers" stance.
They probably also download or respond to all those idiot pop-ups, give out their e-mail to every site they stumble across, buy 11 versions of some half-ass greeting card software, never install updates or security patches, try to plug a USB camera into an Ethernet port, only look at size (and not resolution) when shopping for monitors (they'll run a 19" display at 800x600), etc.
"You stick the CD in, click the songs you want on your computer - or leave them all checked by default - click the "Import" button and wait, oh, 5 minutes? HOW is this a problem to anyone?
I have found that people often assume it's more work than it is, and they're suspicious of anything that straightforward. I have to think that, like how people try to manage their iPhoto and iTunes libraries via the Finder, that people are trying to import CDs, look up tracks, tagging items and organizing their libraries using the Finder or Windows Explorer.
At the next slightly higher level of technical competence, and as much as Apple prefers to avoid such PC-ish things, perhaps a user might have an easier time if there were an "Import CD Wizard" to talk them through each and every tiny step of importing a CD -- it's not that importing a CD isn't easy enough right now, but some people are so afraid of their computers, or are so certain that everything must be more complicated than it is, that they need the constant steady reassurance of on-screen text telling them what to do at every step, even when there are only one or two steps.
As for playing music back once it's on your iPod: The iPod is easy enough to use once you've gotten used to the controls, but for many users the iPod interface is not at all, at first sight, immediately obvious.
The question becomes whether it's better to have an elegant minimalist interface that requires a small learning curve, or a more obvious but clunkier interface -- one with lots of big, clearly labeled buttons, and more buttons overall to access more features directly without stepping and scrolling through menus.
I personally think that the touch-sensitive buttons on current iPods are too much of a trade-off in favoring elegance over simplicity. Sometimes it's too easy to accidentally trigger buttons when you don't want to, and at other times you can press and push and rub and tap the buttons all you want and nothing happens.
I can live with the touch-sensitive scroll wheel, but for all of the other controls, I'd much prefer a nice, satisfying tactile click when I push a button.
I'd also like a volume control that was separate from the scroll wheel ? changing volume shouldn?t be a special ?mode? that you may or may not be in at a given moment, but something which is always immediately accessible.
Originally posted by shetline
At the next slightly higher level of technical competence, and as much as Apple prefers to avoid such PC-ish things, perhaps a user might have an easier time if there were an "Import CD Wizard" to talk them through each and every tiny step of importing a CD -- it's not that importing a CD isn't easy enough right now, but some people are so afraid of their computers, or are so certain that everything must be more complicated than it is, that they need the constant steady reassurance of on-screen text telling them what to do at every step, even when there are only one or two steps.
While a wizard seems like serious overkill, it does remind me of the on-screen help baloons and the Apple guides they used to make for the Help menu. They would walk a user through the process by actually opening an application, circling relevant buttons and such and telling the user what to do in a little forwground window. Because others complained of the amount of resources needed to do this, Apple dumped the Apple Guide system in favor of HTML help.
Still, once you insert a CD, everything becomes pretty obvious. Maybe Apple could make a more forceful "import" button throbber or something, but it's literally right in front of your face when you put in a CD.
As for playing music back once it's on your iPod: The iPod is easy enough to use once you've gotten used to the controls, but for many users the iPod interface is not at all, at first sight, immediately obvious.
True, I've had more people try to push at the top of the scrollwheel to make it go up than I care to recall. Also, people can't figure out how to get back up menus until I point to the "Menu" button. But the iPod does come with a written manual for this too. Of course, as much as people complain that nobody prints manuals any more, more people don't bother to read them even if they are provided.
The question becomes whether it's better to have an elegant minimalist interface that requires a small learning curve, or a more obvious but clunkier interface -- one with lots of big, clearly labeled buttons, and more buttons overall to access more features directly without stepping and scrolling through menus.
I dunno. I can't imagine that a Dell DJ or any other player or its accompanying software would be any easier.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
I have found that people often assume it's more work than it is, and they're suspicious of anything that straightforward.
I think you've hit it right on the head. I still remember vividly my first experience with a mac where I went "whoa. That was it?!? That's all I had to do?!?" and I decided that I had to use a mac for the rest of my computing life. I'm still amazed by how easy things are sometimes.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
While a wizard seems like serious overkill, it does remind me of the on-screen help baloons and the Apple guides they used to make for the Help menu. They would walk a user through the process by actually opening an application, circling relevant buttons and such and telling the user what to do in a little forwground window. Because others complained of the amount of resources needed to do this, Apple dumped the Apple Guide system in favor of HTML help.
I really miss the Apple Guides because they sold computers to people who didn't understand them very well. The big on screen red highlights are the bomb.
My bet is that this article is essentially bought, and the "problem" is the supposed difficulty of importing CDs - which just happens to be what these companies have a solution for.
Whether the "problem" actually exists is unimportant; marketing at its most cynical works off perception to the exclusion of reality.
Now I can understand that many people would INITIALLY have problems with the iPod interface. If you've NEVER used one before, imagine how difficult it would be to go *back* a menu. What would the average person think? Probably to use the (|<<) button. How do you turn it off? Most would probably not think to hold down the play button. Regarding scrolling, most would think that the scroll wheel can't be used for two different things (i.e. menu selection AND volume control). Also, if you accidentally click the middle button during a song, the volume control doesn't stay, does it?
Of course, once you figure all those functions out -- or someone tells you how to do it -- it's no problem. Apple probably should shore up the interface a bit, or have a "Quick Card" included with iPods giving all the basic button functions. I honestly don't know, is something like this included in the manual? I know Apple's web site has the basic controls in the Support section, but knowing my parents and all others like them, that's the LAST place they'd think to look.
Menu = 'Menu back'
Play/Pause is a toggle... hold it down, and you're saying "*REALLY* pause..." Since the 'off' is just a 'standby' mode, this explanation made sense to her.
Now, holding Menu to get the backlight... *that* is wonky.
This also point to the old RTFM syndrome. There are a few things about the iPod that aren't perfectly obvious at first. It's electronics, it's not like we're ducks in water with these things. The whole "intuitive" thing is a pet peeve of mine anyway.
another example... i still find iMovie much harder to use than Final Cut.. just because of how easy it is... that's not how i was trained to think on my old PCs.
My brother *FINALLY* grokked the Mac Way after years of trying to make it harder than it needs to be. It took MacOS X to make sense, but finally "You know, I just think to myself 'where would it make *sense* to find this?' and 99% of the time, *bam*, there it is."
My advisor is a PC head. He watched me whip up a demo video for a conference one day.
Shoot video on DV camera.
Plug it in.
Scan through film, find clips we like, drag and drop them to edit panel.
Add text and transitions.
Add voiceover.
Whole thing took 30 minutes.
When we were doing the final export, he said "Wow, I didn't know you did video editing..." "I don't." "But..." "This is the first time I've ever done anything like this."
He about fainted.
He bought a PowerBook the next week.
Every so often, I'll sneak a peek at what she's doing - expose'ing like mad, hiding all apps but the ones she's using. Generally navigating the UI like a pro. All this after about 6 months. Gotta love it.
Originally posted by torifile
Every so often, I'll sneak a peek at what she's doing - expose'ing like mad, hiding all apps but the ones she's using. Generally navigating the UI like a pro. All this after about 6 months. Gotta love it.
Man, you have a cool girlfriend
knowing how much he is into music, i dragged him to the mall of america and put him in front of garage band.
2 minutes later, he was banging away at the keyboard they had set up, recording a bass solo, getting pissed at me cuz now he has to buy one
he was even more amazed when i showed him how easy it was to save the track as an mp3 and throw it in itunes. i almost needed help getting him to leave the store, but it was worth it to save one more soul from windows hell.