I spent some time this afternoon helping a retired and widowed neighbor install a new set-top box and reprogram her universal remote. There were several things about this process that troubled me. The first is […]
Category: Usability
Stupid Doors
I’m sitting at a Starbucks, watching with amazement at how many people coming in and going out can’t properly operate the doors. In usability circles, these are a classic example of what are unaffectionately known […]
iTunes Makes Me Afraid
I’m completely syncing my iPhone to my ThinkPad for the first time in a long while, in preparation for installing iOS 4, and keep running into software behaviors that are the antithesis of good product […]
Tech Writers as Outsiders—a Good Thing?
In The Technical Writer as an Outsider: How Ambitious Are You?, Tom Johnson talks about the appropriate place in software development to get the technical writers involved, and makes some interesting observations on what the […]
iTunes: Numbers Never Lie (but they confuse)
After importing my 33 GB worth of CDs into iTunes, I am being perplexed by Apple. Tunes says I have 3646 songs on my NAS. It says I have 3629 songs in the library that […]
My LinkStation Live Killed my iPod Sync
Just a simple UI problem. Easy to forsee. Painful to experience. I decided to turn on the LinkStation Live web sharing while synching my iPod for the first time with a new library. (Just 3600 […]
iTunes RIPs
And not in a good way. One of the paramount features of computer software–or any automation–must be to absolve the user from having to perform tedious or confusing (or worse, both) actions which the computer […]
Save Me From The Evil Back Button
This experience is one of many reasons why I have a love/hate relationship with web-based software. I had just finished composing a message on a Yahoo group, and went to hit the post button. But […]
Elevator Door Open/Close Symbol Confusion
The Hold that elevator! post, describing the confusion created by two sets of open/close buttons, on The Cooper Journal renewed my interest in a question that has long bothered me, and which may even have […]
Symbols can be bad
Despite my continuing belief in the importance of symbols, I must point out that they are not a panacea and have some inherent limitations, especially if poorly designed, but even when well-designed. So when selecting […]