Posted on Mon, Jan 28, 2008
Following the success of the last Age of Conversation project, the ball has started rolling for the follow-up, Age of Conversation 2.
The collaborative commentary on social media and contemporary marketing techniques will feature input from 100 authors/bloggers from all over the world. The finished product will be available for sale on Amazon.com.
In the mean-time, point check out organizer Drew McLellan’s blog for more information, the chance to sign up as an author and the opportunity to vote on Age of Conversation 2 topics.
For more info, visit my good friend Chris Wilson’s blog over at the The Marketing Fresh Peel.
[digg=http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Social_Media_Age_of_Conversation]
Posted on Tue, Jan 22, 2008
I was clicking around on Fortune 500 websites yesterday and I came across this little gem.
You better believe it, I’m a Fortune 500 website!
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, Inc, website has an extremely interesting design.
As you can see, it is a very simple hyperlink-based website – very 1995.
I am in two minds about this website. The website is very simple to use, very easy to navigate and the user can determine the content of the entire site at one glance.
On the other hand, the website looks cheap. It doesn’t look like the site of one of the biggest companies in the world. It actually had me guessing for a short period of time, wondering whether it was for real.
Doubting the integrity of a website could force a user into going elsewhere. Maybe this doesn’t matter for Warren, but it would matter for other companies.
Oh, by the way, original links are in purple, not blue – it looks like I’ve visited all of those links before, but in actuality I’ve only visited the first one (in red.) The descriptions are written in a very small font and the Geico advertisement at the bottom is another thing I wouldn’t expect on a Fortune 500 website (although Geico is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.)
Love it or hate it, I do believe that many people will think this is most odd.
[digg=http://www.digg.com/design/The_strangest_Fortune_500_website_ever]
Posted on Mon, Jan 21, 2008
Last night I played a demo of FIFA Street 3 on my Xbox 360 and I loved it.
I want to know when it will be released so I hopped on over to the Electronic Arts website (the publishers of the game.)
I select my country (easy enough) and then get directed to the main website. Here I go about hunting for info on FIFA Street 3.
Nothing is too obvious by looking at the home page. Menus are minimal, and none of them really apply to what I’m looking for. I do see a “quick navigation” box in the top left (the usual place for a logo, tsk tsk) so I click on the drop-down.
I know that the game is an EA Sports Big branded product, so I click on that option and I’m whisked over to the EA Sports Big website.
There is a “find a game” option – bingo, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.
I am asked to select a platform which is easy enough. Then, quicker than you can say “Jack Robinson,” I am taken AWAY from the EA Sports Big website and deposited back to the EA branded website.
So, now I’m at a place where I know I don’t want to be. Still can’t find my game – and the navigation options really don’t help me either. There is an “all Xbox 360 games” column on the left hand side, which is acting as navigation – but there are 4 pages to go through and the games are in no particular order (well, maybe they’re in order of release date, but that really doesn’t help me search for something.)
Oh yeah, there is no search option which is completely crazy.
So, I still haven’t found the information I want. If I were EA, and I had just released a product demo, I would logically assume that some people would want to buy it, and that those people might like to know when it comes out. Therefore, I would make finding information about new products, such as release date, platform and price, a priority. That’s just marketing common sense.
So, boo to EA for making me hunt around – I’m ready to buy this game, but you’re not helping me give you my custom. Rarrrrr.
Edit: Game comes out in February some time for the 360…I randomly typed the URL www.fifastreet3.com and was directed to a EA FIFA Street 3 flash page. Bizarre-oh.
[digg=http://www.digg.com/design/Electronic_Arts_you_need_some_usability]
Posted on Tue, Jan 15, 2008
In the last post I attempted to talk about the usability of the Clix hardware. This post I’ll address how the player works with the software.
First thing to note usability-wise…you have a ton of options
Drag’n'Drop
Windows Vista – so simple
In my opinion, simple drag’n'drop through a Windows or an OSX interface should be standard among all players, and I’m glad that the iRiver Clix can be used in such a way. Essentially, once you hook your iRiver to your computer via USB2, the computer treats the Clix as an external drive. Using Windows Explorer I can see the various folders in my Clix such as Music, Videos, Themes, etc. I can then add files or delete them as I see fit.
The reason I LOVE this is because it is very usable. The Windows Explorer interface is likely to be familiar to many people. It is extremely simple, streamlined and easy to use. A disadvantage of using this method for managing the iRiver is that there are some really cool features that can’t be used such as the Rhapsody Channels or the Library.
8/10 usability rating
Windows Media Player 11
WMP11 – so fast
Personally, I like Windows Media Player 11 – it’s my player of choice so I am familiar with the interface.
Hooking up the iRiver is a simple process – the software automatically recognizes the player.
Adding files to the Clix is easy…once you know what you’re doing. For some reason, the iRiver was set to automatically sync everything once I hooked up my iRiver. I wanted to put an album on my Clix so I dragged the album to the sync column and hit the sync button. The player started to sync every single media file that I had in Windows Media Player. Not cool. Took bloody ages.
However, once you navigate through the options and turn this ludicrous feature off, you’re laughing. The iRiver and WMP11 work very well together – the speed of transfer is surprisingly fast.
One feature that really makes the software usable is that WMP11 lets me know the progress of the transfer. At a glance I can see which tracks have been zapped to the Clix, and which are still pending. WMP11 keeps the user in the loop at all times. Love it.
It’s easy to rate songs in WMP11 and the Clix – I can assign a five star rating to a particular track in WMP11 and that rating will be transferred to my iRiver with the song (so if I want to listen to just five star songs I can) and vice-versa.
Album art and full ID3 tags are also transferred when using WMP11.
7/10 usability rating
Rhapsody
Rhaspody – you could be so cool…
The Clix and Rhapsody were designed to work together…and for the most part they do.
Rhapsody, in my opinion, is an extremely versatile piece of music download software. The catalog of grooves is pretty darn good and there are many customization options that really make it shine.
(Just so you know, a Rhapsody To Go subscription is needed ($13.99 a month) to get the software working with the iRiver.)
The interface is cool and slick – very easy to use. Browsing for music is extremely easy as you can hunt by genre, sub-genre, release date, etc. The search engine is very powerful, and brings up relevant artists and tracks effectively – you just have to remember to tell the software if you’re looking for an artist, track or keyword.
Rhapsody has given the software a human and intelligent feel. Rhapsody has editor’s picks, and recommends music and new releases to the user based upon download and listening behaviors. I’ve found a ton of new artists this way.
The majority of artists on Rhapsody have a mini-bio. This bio can be accessed using the Clix, which I think is an awesome feature especially when used with Rhapsody Channels.
Yes, yes, Rhapsody Channels. Probably the best feature ever and one that is usable for a variety of reasons. You can “subscribe” (but you don’t actually pay any more) to a channel. For example, it could be Grunge Rock (how old skool am I?) Rhapsody will transfer about 3-4 hours of Grunge onto your iRiver. You don’t know what the tracks are.
You then take your Clix and navigate to your Grunge channel and start listening to it. You’ll hear tracks that you know, and some that you won’t. If you like a particular track, with two clicks you can add it to your library. By adding a track to your library, when you re-sync with Rhapsody it tells the software that this is an artist that you like and the software records this.
Essentially, this means that you can discover new tracks and bands and the software will keep track of what you like, suggesting other bands that are similar to it. You don’t have to remember, or write anything down. You just click a button on the Clix. It really is a great way to discover new music.
You can even personalize channels. Say you like New Order, Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx. You “add a new channel” in Rhapsody and name it, then you enter those three bands as artists that you like. Rhapsody, again, will randomly populate your Clix with songs from not only those three bands, but also bands that are similar in style. Again, it’s another fantastic way of discovering new things. And again, you can use the “add to library” feature on the Clix to keep track of any new tracks that you like.
Now, so far so good. This is where Rhapsody starts to go downhill. Transferring music to the Clix is easy, but unlike WMP11, you are not given a live update of where you are in the transfer process. The progress bar can freeze from time to time, and while the Clix is actually being updated, it looks like it isn’t. That can be confusing and sometimes I was left wondering whether Rhapsody had crashed.
Transferring channels, while easy, seems to be very slow indeed. However, this is due to the fact that not only does Rhapsody have to transfer the music, it has to download all of the tracks too. A little message here letting the user now that it is “downloading” would be great, followed by a “transferring” message.
Everything so far is certainly not a big deal in the grand scheme of usability. But this next thing is. It’s what I like to call: really, really bad stuff.
…but you make me want to punch you
Apparently there is a bug in the system. A bug that has been there for several months. A bug that Rhapsody know about. A bug that has been commented on in the Rhapsody forums over and over and over again. It’s something that is really annoying users.
When you try to transfer several downloaded tracks at a time through Rhapsody, you sometimes get a random message telling you that the player does not support this particular video file. Well, that’s annoying because the user isn’t actually transferring video files – they’re music files – and also because as soon as you get this message, all transfers to the Clix stop and you have to restart the software. This kills usability. Imagine trying to download and transfer 20 songs. I personally would have to restart the software at least 3 times to do that.
Awful. Users have figured out a few work-arounds, but these are unofficial and involve messing around with your computers library files (no way.) The issue is to do with Rhapsody and WMP11 not getting along. Since most, if not all, PCs come bundled with WMP as part of the OS, Rhapsody needs to deal with it.
Trawling through the forums doesn’t give me much hope that Rhapsody is going to tackle the issue any time soon.
So, I would LOVE to give Rhapsody a 9/10 but that one issue forces me to give it…
5/10 usability rating
NOTE: The iRiver Clix Rhapsody Edition works with all music subscription services, not just Rhapsody – so you can pick and choose (which is great in terms of usability as it gives the user choice.)
iRiver Plus 3
This is iRiver’s proprietary music management software. It uses a different format than Rhapsody, Windows and WMP. You have to change the players mode to get it to work, which then means that the player won’t work with the other three pieces of software. Every time you change the mode, you have to reformat the Clix.
That being said, I didn’t use it. That really is a usability issue – not conforming to standards.
No rating.
Summing up
The Clix is awesome. The best player on the market in my opinion. It’s incredibly easy to use and busting with a ton of features that no other player can compete with.
It integrates with almost all possible software/music management options you can think of (not iTunes), which means that the user has the choice to use it with whatever they like. Amazing.
The Rhapsody issue lets the software side down, and this somewhat affects how you might use the Clix. The Channels are an awesome feature, but if Rhapsody continues to frustrate users by not addressing the transfer bug, then people may simply not use it – the ultimate usability faux pas.
[digg=http://digg.com/gadgets/The_iRiver_Clix_Rhapsody_Edition_part_two]
Posted on Thu, Jan 10, 2008
For Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive an iRiver Clix 2 Rhapsody edition. The “Rhapsody” in “Rhapsody Edition” means that this is a regular 4gb iRiver Clix 2 but it’s pre-formatted to work with the Rhapsody To Go music software.
Don’t tell my wife, but I love you
I don’t really need to say what an awesome MP3/media player this is, as there are a metric ton of reviews out there that do that already. I want to focus on the usability of the player.
I’m going to split this up into two parts. Part one, this post, will deal with the player itself while part two will deal with the player and its integration with the Rhapsody software.
The Outside
Let’s start on the outside. There are two volume buttons, up and down, which are easy to press with your fingers. They are small enough to be unobtrusive but big enough to be easily pressed without pressing them both at the same time. Oddly, they are reversed if you use the player in its default mode (landscape.) To me, not a big deal, but in terms of usability it’s a bit silly.
There’s a hold button and a power button. There is also a “hot” button. You can assign this button pretty much any function. Mine is set to “main menu,” meaning that no matter what I am doing with the Clix, e.g. watching a movie, I can hit this button and I’ll immediately be taken back to the main menu. This is great when you’re delving into the depths of the sub-menus and you don’t want to re-navigate your way back to your original starting place.
The coolest part about the Clix’s hard interface is the navigation system. It is essentially the whole faceplate and iRiver call this cunning system the “D-Click” system. Pressing on the top of the screen causes you to go up, the right of the screen causes you to go right, etc. This is great for navigating menus quickly since the navigation system is physically a lot larger than other MP3 players. This means that you don’t tend to accidentally press the wrong direction.
I personally love the D-Click hard interface. The only downfall I can think of is if you need to use just one hand to navigate, like a runner would for example, then it is rather hard to operate. Don’t get me wrong, this player is tiny, but the navigation interface is literally the size of the player so you really need one hand to hold the player and the other to click around.
The screen is bright, colorful and can be viewed at any angle and this is very important in terms of accessibility and usability. The resolution is truly amazing which means that the fonts are crisp and clear and very readable. Because of the clarity and resolution, the screen appears larger than its 2.2? display.
The Inside
While the Clix is super-sexy on the outside, it really shines on the inside. The D-Click navigation works very well with the firmware interface. iRiver has thought a lot about menu placement meaning that you can watch movies or play music without having to read the manual. The vast majority of functions are only a couple of clicks away. As you would expect, the more advanced features are confined to sub-menus, but the labeling is logical and doesn’t leave you guessing as to what the features actually do.
Essentially, everything on the Clix is customizable. In my opinion, this is one of the major selling points of the player, as it has been in previous iRiver products. You can customize everything from the sound of the player (by using the pre-loaded or custom EQ) to the structure of the menu system. My favorite feature, however, is the customizable themes.
Unlike other MP3 players, the Clix 2 has a fully customizable interface. Firstly, you can simply change the fonts used by the player. Just hook the Clix up to your computer and drag’n'drop a TrueType font of your choosing over to the iRiver. Ta da! The player now uses that font. This is great for people who have problems with their vision as certain fonts are easier to read than others (e.g. Arial is a great easy-to-read font.) This is an excellent accessibility feature.
Now, this is where things get very interesting. The Clix interface is actually built using Adobe Flash Lite. This means that there are a wealth of themes that can be downloaded from the Internet and transferred to the Clix (again, a simple drag and drop.) The variety of themes out there is amazing. From fully animated star-fields with planets, comets and moons to simple stylish neon menu systems, there really is something for everyone. But guess what? If you’re a dab-hand at Flash design, you can make your own themes using Flash Lite and use those!
This intense customization experience aids usability on two levels. One, it is practical. People have different preferences about what works for them. By allowing customization of the sound, menu structure and look and feel of the interface we can be certain that users will find something that works for them…something that is perfect.
Two, customization promotes engagement. Just knowing that I can make my MP3 player unique to me and my needs makes me feel good – it makes me bond with my device because I know that it is configured just the way I like it. By doing this, iRiver has made the MP3 player personal and that makes me want to use it.
[digg=http://www.digg.com/gadgets/The_iRiver_Clix_2_Rhapsody_edition_part_one]
Posted on Wed, Jan 09, 2008
Now that I am going to be a world-class DJ (in my mind only, folks, sorry to disappoint) I need some seriously hot MP3s to replace my seriously hot vinyl.
There is a great website that has a decent selection of “records” for DJs and dance music junkies. Beatport really is a great resource – I’ve found some real house gems over the past couple of weeks.
However, my hunt for the perfect groove is sometimes hindered producing a rather unwanted I’m-going-to-break-my-computer-into-a-thousand-little-pieces effect.
Part of the fun of record shopping, real-life or virtual, is trawling through a pile of tracks and listening to them in an effort to find something that stands out as amazing. On Beatport I have done this several times. I’ve spent 30 mins listening to the new releases, not finding anything that appeals to me and then, BLAM – a great piece of music jumps out and hits me.
The thrill of finding a great groove is pretty neat, so I excitedly hit the “add to cart” button but what sometimes happens next really drives me insane. I get a message:
“TERRITORY RESTRICTED: One or more of the items you’ve selected for purchase are unavailable in your territory”
Hulk angry
This has happened so many times now, that every time I put something in my cart, I am expecting to be disappointed – kinda takes the fun out of shopping for records.
Just in case you don’t know, music licensing is rather complicated. What’s available in the UK, for example, may not be available in the US. Technically, the same record can be on one record label over in the UK and on a completely different record label over here in the USA. So, if a record is on a label that does not have a US distribution deal, then I can’t buy it – even over the Internet.
There’s nothing that Beatport can do to combat the territory restriction, but there are a few things they can do to combat my frustration:
- In the song info section (which appears when you click on a track), let me know if there are any territory restrictions and where those restrictions are.
- Have a “Which country are you from?” screen. That way, when I select “USA” I’m only shown records that are available in the USA.
Those simple things would certainly combat much user frustration and enhance usability ten-fold.
Despite this issue, Beatport is an excellent resource and it is obviously run by people who are really passionate about DJ-oriented music. I’d recommend them to anyone who like any type of electronic beats.
[digg=http://www.digg.com/design/Beatport_a_great_idea_that_would_prevent_rage_2]
Posted on Tue, Jan 08, 2008
In my spare time, I’m a bit of music producer. In the late 80s and early 90s, many fantastic synthesizers were available on the market – the digital synth had come of age. My synthesizer was beautiful – it had an audio capability that was simply unrivaled. The sounds that one could make were amazing lashings of sonic delight.
My synth – wonderful sounds, awful interface
Despite my synthesizer’s audio capabilities, I never really programmed many of my own sounds because of the interface – it was all digital. To make things “simpler,” manufacturers cut back on the knobs, sliders and switches that adorned the old school instruments. Instead, they replaced the analog interfaces with buttons and small LCD screens. Features that were essential to sculpting audio were hidden behind menus, sub menus and sub-sub menus. Elements of a sound’s dynamic could only be changed one at a time – and that’s only if you could remember under which sequence of buttons the function resided. Think of it like this: you had hundreds of ways to alter and program a sound – but only fifteen buttons to do it with.
Modern synth – old school interface, 100% usable
There was an obvious usability issue here. So, in the mid-nineties, manufacturers started to build cutting-edge digital synthesizers with analog shells in an effort to make programming an audio landscape more hands-on. “Controller” keyboards started to spring up – keyboards that couldn’t produce sounds by themselves, but would act as an interface for another keyboard thus allowing the essential sound parameters to be tweaked using the knobs and sliders of the controller keyboard, not the menus and sub-menus of the slave digital synthesizer.
Controllers are even more important now. The advancement of the microchip and computer technology now means that traditional synthesizer hardware (i.e. the whole unit) can be boiled down to a piece of software that you can load on your computer. The computer screen does act as a decent interface as you can visually see many parameters at once – but it’s still hard to control. By hooking up a relatively cheap controller keyboard to your computer, it creates the illusion that you are playing a fully fledged analog interfaced synthesizer.
Thinking about websites, designers need to always be aware that no matter how complex or simple there website is, the only controller that their users will use is a mouse and, most frequently, the left mouse button. Sometimes users will have to use the keyboard, but the primary navigation is just a little piece of plastic that fits in the palm of the hand.
Musicians learn to use their equipment inside out – they study user manuals, musician forums and, spend hours and hours experimenting. Website users are the exact opposite. They must be able to use almost every single website out there with no prior education or instruction.
[digg=http://www.digg.com/design/Knobs_buttons_sliders_and_mouses]
Posted on Mon, Jan 07, 2008
Some top-notch gadgets have started to appear at the Consumer Electronics Show.
So far, one of my favorites is the iRiver Spinn (pictured) – a very slick looking MP3/media player.
Personally, I love iRiver. I’m the proud owner of a Clix, something that I will write about in a later post.
Anyway, back to the Spinn. The phrase “combines warmth of analog controls” with digital content was used to accompany the announcement of the Spinn. I’m not totally sure what this means but this has got to be great news.
To me, I have always related analog controls to usable controls. What’s easier to use than an analog rotary volume wheel? Nothing. You want it loud…boom, you’re there instantly. You want it to be quiet so you can hear your loved one whisper sweet nothings in your ear? Hey presto, the volume is instantly lowered. The control is quick and precise, unlike digital controls, which are often slower – you have to wait as the volume cycles up or down.
Of course, volume is just one limited example. The analog controls will be used in conjunction with the digital controls – so it is likely to aid in menu navigation and feature selection. Again, the implementation of analog control is to make the player easier and quicker to use and make features more accessible.
[digg=http://www.digg.com/gadgets/I_like_analog_and_I_like_iRiver]