A few days ago I talked about how MSN screwed up the user interface on their new MSN Live search engine, but will that really hurt them?
If history proves, it’s not the interface that matters, it’s the marketing. Look at Red Bull… They not only successfully marketed a piss tasting energy drink, they created a market for piss tasting energy drinks, but I want to talk about a more ubiquitous product (is that even a word? It should be!)
The Ipod has to have the WORST user interface design ever! Seriously, how intuitive is it to have to scroll your finger in a circle to turn up the volume or select a song? That’s not natural.
Another non natural feature is the time delay of buttons. Press the play button and it pauses, hold it down though and it powers off. That doesn’t make sense.
Even worse, there’s a “hold” switch at the top, that makes the other buttons not function.. good idea as it’s very easy to press the play button when my ipod is in my pocket.. but here’s a better idea…
Just make the hold switch the power button… It’s impossible to accidentaly flip that lever, and then you won’t have to worry about the time delay button stuff that confuses the hell out of most consumers.
Remember, these are the same people who think that they plug their ipod into their “modem”.
Here’s a tip for all you college students, and MBA’s out there.. UID (user interface design) isn’t about what looks cool; it’s about being intuitive and just working.
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