User Centered

Microsoft research evaluating different user interface designs by which applications disclose to users what sort of authority they need to install themselves.

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Anyone who's been around this site for awhile (all three of you) knows that I have a long standing series of beefs with Apple on how they handle podcasts on the iPod/iPhone. In summation- Apple initially treated the UI for podcasts very much like that for music/songs and have subsequently updated with a series of patches and band-aids to compensate that slowly increment towards a passable podcast UI.


Apple's new iPhone software includes another one of these fixes that is likely spurned on by the same issues I brought up in my previous post on this topic- the seek and slider functions are terrible ways to get around a podcast track. So, they've provided a very welcome "30 second" rewind function. Also gone are the shuffle and repeat functions, which didn't make a lot of sense for podcasts in my opinion anyway (more music thinking transposed to podcasts)

It's welcome, but I still consider this a patch. We now have three different ways on the same screen to move around the track: Seek, slider, and 30 seconds. More UI equals more decision points and more complication. I suppose it would be passable to do this, but as I pointed out before, the first two are pretty much worthless for long podcasts, the seek function is too clumsy and the slider is impossible to do anything with accuracy. The original iPod click wheel did a decent job of allowing you to move around the track with few problems, I had no issues with that interaction.

I feel like this whole podcast UI needs a "from scratch" redesign- perhaps my next related post will be a mockup of a series of ideas I've had over the years, since Apple seems to only pay enough attention to podcasts to add one small feature with each release that only slightly moves the bar forward.

A report by 37signals on their redesign of the signup chart for their Highrise product.

PS: Since yesterday, the more appropriate "Pay as you go | No hidden fees | No surprises" line was replaced on the live site by the redundant "Our customers" quotes.

Originally posted by Aza Rask:

It’s ironic (and predicable) that the interfaces SUPPLE comes up with for dexterity/visually impaired people are just better interfaces than the controls. The optimized interfaces almost always display more information in a way that requires less clicking than the original interfaces. No wonder they perform better! It’s just a direct application of Fitts’s law and GOMs analysis.

One interesting thing to call out: The interfaces for SUPPLE are defined by schematic intent, not by layout. The computer translates a user-flow markup into an actual interface. We’ll probably see a lot more of this as we need to design web sites for truly divergent screen-sizes (computer, mobile, wall screens).

dantesoft, who clearly was concerned about the lack of posting as of late, sends in yet another link from the Technology Review

Precision Pointing with Fat Fingers

Interesting approach. It's nice to have a toolbox of techiniques to use as we get more mobile devices and interesting interfaces.

Thanks again Dantesoft!