Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short

kevin — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 19:42:38 -0500

OK, so Tara bring home a miniDV recorder that has firewire so she needs me to get it off her.

I plug it in. Nothing happens – damn!

I spend 20 minutes googling – nothing! Finally come across a forum saying maybe you need to use something like iMovie. I remember imovie being one of those huge space-wasting programs included with my computer, so I tab over and run it.

Yay! I turn on the camera. It says ‘import’, i click it… and it records the blank 10 seconds on the end of the tape. Aren’t these things supposed to be idiot proof? And I’m not even an idiot. I fudge with the DV camera’s controls to rewind the tape. Import again, finally a clip!

So now, how do I save this sucker? Sure, it will be File > Save, right? Nope, that’s as a wierd iMovie project, I want to export it as a quicktime/whatever movie. File->Export? Nope, no such thing. File > Share? Maybe. Email? Not really, i want control..

Finally, I find it under File > Share > Quicktime.

A simple user process diagram would have shown that this is so far from what people expect they’re going to be cursing the day they got started with this program. How do you spend so much time making an otherwise good product, but have such crazy UI issues? Someone hasn’t been doing enough usability testing…

As fun as it is to rant on Apple, usually their design is pretty good. The truth is, everyone does this. MS windows is even easier to yell about. Why is the damn start menu called the start menu? Why is there a start menu tree that isn’t related to the file structure? 99% of windows users have no idea what to do when something gets removed from their start menu.

Program grouping of items on the start menu – you’re working, suddenly something flashes and all of your windows are gone! So you open a new version of the program, and it’s not there either! Say you actually realize to click the sub-menu to get to your window – you’re in classic “this-takes-me-twice-as-long” mode. Sub-menus suck! And don’t even get me started about how many damned ‘advanced’ panels and sub-panels there are. Phew.

Often I think I can put myself in the user’s shoes and know what they’ll want. Clearly someone has thought this before and been terribly, terribly wrong. Does that mean I’ll start doing the actual user testing I claim is so important? I hope so, it’s so just so much work, and such a conceptually distant activity from actual programming. I mean, you have to, like, talk to people and stuff!

Technorati Tags: apple, design, windows

"Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short" by Seattle Gift Shop Souvenirs

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 05:03:20 -0600

Well at last catched the problem.

"Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short" by Balenciaga Cologne

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:20:49 -0600

I was very dissapointed of this :(

"Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short" by California Compare Mortgage Rate

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:36:26 -0600

I think it would be usefull for other users also :)

"Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short" by Pass Dishwasher

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:52:02 -0600

Not really new :(

"Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short" by Compact Dishwasher

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 06:41:49 -0600

I was very dissapointed of this :(

"Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short" by Loan Home Mortgage Rate Inch California

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:37:20 -0600

The content of your show is great, I really enjoy it.

Inspire Creativity: Apple gets close to Getting it, but sometimes falls short