A good UI is a good thing
Music August 26th, 2004 |Terrence has a review of his Nomad Zen Xtra mp3 player posted, and while it’s essentially a positive review, one line stood out to me. After having had the unit for six months and using it on what sounds like a near-daily basis, he mentions that he has “basically mastered the controls.”
Yowza.
I pulled my iPod out of the box, and had the controls mastered in about six seconds.
This isn’t at all to disparage his purchase — as I said, he seems to be quite happy with it — but it really stood out to me as one major reason why the iPod is such a success.
iTunes: “Sacred City” by YelworC from the album German Mystic Sound Sampler Vol. IV (1992, 4:51).
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6 Responses to “A good UI is a good thing”
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Michael Hanscom
Ryan Waddell
Michelle
Curt
Jess
August 26th, 2004 at 10:18 am
There is something to be said for KISS. I have owned a number of mp3 players and they all did the playback functionality well, but the usability for most was a nightmare.
Now with the new “click” dials, the interface is even better IMO… now if I can justify giving my wife my 40gb 3Gen Pod so I can buy the 4Gen one I will be set
August 26th, 2004 at 11:13 am
The funny thing is that most who use the Nomad Zen Xtra—or any other MP3 player—don’t believe the iPod’s interface is any better than their players… until they use an iPod!
August 26th, 2004 at 2:20 pm
Six months? Yowza. I mastered my Zen in two minutes, and I still haven’t read the manual.
I’ve used an iPod as well. I think they’re about equal, interface-wise.
August 26th, 2004 at 3:49 pm
Actually, it’s kinda funny. I didn’t give any thought to my choice of words when I wrote that post. So, if it came across like it took me six months to learn how to use the Zen, that wasn’t what I intended. Actualy, I can use the controls without looking at them now.
I do think getting rid of the scroll wheel on the newer model was a good idea though. I’ve never had any problems with it, but I’ve heard others complain about it.
But who knows? Everyone where I work has an iPod. And they’ve already got me using an iBook (though they left me little choice)…
August 26th, 2004 at 6:32 pm
However, what about that small problem of having to pay £86 for a replacement iPod in two years time because the irreplaceable battery is dead? iPod is doing its best not to make this ‘feature’ known and yet it’s one of the most important things I feel, if I was going to buy an iPod. Do I really want to be spending nearly £100 on a new iPod every two years?
“Apple offers a battery replacement for £86.29 (UK) / €131.10 (Ireland) including VAT.”
This information is not available on the same page as the iPod page, but rather, a brief link is given inside a sentence to another page detailing how much it costs to replace and even then, you still have to click through two more pages to get to the replacement form and even then, more links to actually get to the page you want.
iPods may be the coolest thing to have currently, but let’s wait till 2006 till customers get angry…
August 28th, 2004 at 7:45 am
The iPod’s battery is user-replaceable. http://www.ipodbattery.com/ is just one of many sites that offers a kit to do it yourself or will do it for a fee.