Users should be smug, and why the Apple iPhone makes you feel smarter
Summary: Manufacturers build complexity into their gadgets, but few take pains to hide it -- leaving users confused, bewildered and angry. Why?
Manufacturers build an awful lot of complexity into their gadgets, but very few of them take pains to hide it -- leaving users confused, bewildered and angry.
Who the heck wants to page through a 300-page instruction manual?
That kind of attitude can hurt a company's bottom line when customers return products before bothering to figure out how to use them.
It doesn't have to be that way.
MAYA Design's Mickey McManus says products should be so intuitive that a customer feels silly explaining to another how it works.
And by silly, I mean smug -- as in, "Isn't it obvious?"
That's why the Apple iPhone is so popular...it appears so obvious to use that you feel a little smug using it.
On SmartPlanet's Smart Takes blog, McManus explains why such innovation is necessary as technology grows more complex and our brains stay exactly the same. Who doesn't want to be a little smug?
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Talkback
It works and it is NOT Microsoft
GOOD bye Windows Mobile it was as if you never existed!
ha ha
I am happy!
:)
Now to get rid of Windows on the desktop!
:)
say what!?
products.
Honestly most of the people that get a computer
virus these days would have to be uneducated in
the use of a computer. you are referring to
past incidences which could have happened also
to macs... o but wait who would want to have
attacked an OS that only served a small majority of the populous at the time...
i almost forgot that microsoft is the one and
only creator of Mobile OS as your post refers
to -.-" have you been living under a rock?
@ellmondo
have to be uneducated in the use of a computer."
Which is the vast majority of computer users. That is why there are so
many problems with viruses/spyware/trojans, etc. Did you forget that us
tech geeks are the minority?
Or running XP
Same ad, same attack on a Win 7 machine later that day. UAC engaged, I told it no, nothing happened, life went on. While I advocate Windows I am all for people getting off XP, whatever their OS choice is. It's swiss cheese at this point.
I felt smarter up until the point where
Now if I could convince my wife to use the phone I wouldn't feel as though I overpaid for a paperweight.
I've been reading that it looks as thought the iPhone runs the most insecure OS of any phone out there, so did you have any real point?
The first two paragraphs were
As they say in France however: vive la diff?rence.
Thanks! That was the whole point of it.
I see......
@daMan25
it the best.
Just like in NASCAR, the fastest car don't always win.
Did I say...
Congratulations, Andrew.
Designing easy-to-use things isn't easy!
do something first. It takes time and lots of effort to refine a design to be simple
and easy to use. Apple is absolutely unique In demanding simplicity of use as
the most important design criteria, and it shows. The iPhone is a wonderful
example of attention to detail in a design. And so far, no one has been able to
match it.
You are of course
To the purists however, these people are all stupid, I guess in a sense they have a point too. If however we develop technology to improve ALL our lives, it does not serve much purpose if you walk around with your nose in the air as the only person who has mastered a new and fancy gadget.
When I sit bumper to bumper in the rush hour, I want an automatic transmission. When I drive that two lane winding road, I much prefer a 6 speed manual. It is so much more fun. But I do not knock the automatic tranny.
Apple does push design much further than others
be well designed. We are way too forgiving, way
too willing to push cheap ahead of good design.
Users don't feel "smug". That is a slander. They
feel happy that they have a well designed product
in front of them. That is a different thing.
Great point, Dog. (nt)
I tend to agree.
was not originally primarily intended as a business tool. As the
design matures Apple is adding features that make it more powerful
and more useable for businesses but It is clear that the foundation of
the phone is about simplicity and user experience. And for many, that
core design philosophy is more important than an approach that starts
with a jumble of features that are difficult or more importantly, not
enjoyable to use.
Different people have different ways of looking at functionality. Many
techies often look at the list of hardware specifications and define
functionality that way. Other people look at how [b]they[/b] function
with the product.
I'd have to agree here...
Very well said
You can't make something foolproof...
A saying I once read
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning."
? Rich Cook, author