Apple switching from usability to modernist art
Hugh Fisher
Apples switch from designing usable computers to modernist
art pieces has reached a new level with the "superdrive" on
the latest PowerMac/iMac models.
The uni department I work for bought one of the new state of
the art, ultra cool, G4 PowerMacs. I was going to install
some software on it from a CD. A simple task that I've done
hundreds of times before: open the CD drive and, uh, wait a
minute, just how *do* I open it?
On all the beige PowerMacs and Macs before them, and on every
PC, and on the average consumer CD player, there is a button
underneath the CD drive. You press it, the tray slides out.
Somewhere along the way Macs acquired a new touch sensitive
button in the middle of the CD drive door. I always find myself
tentatively prodding at this, due to the very human desire to
keep my fingers out of the way of moving bits of machinery.
But hey, it removes a protrusion from the case that somebody
(Steve Jobs?) evidently found distasteful.
And now we have the Superdrive, which has no button at all!
So what am I supposed to do?
I search the (MacOS X) desktop for a CD to eject. No go. Check
Finder preferences in case it is now under /mnt or some other
location. No. The drive door is covered by a plastic decal,
maybe you're supposed to peel it off? No. However, the decal
does have a corner tag which gives enough purchase to flip
the door, so at least I can see that there is a mechanism
inside - I was beginning to wonder.
After ten minutes of futile searching I went and asked the
local Mac expert. He told me to look for a special eject key
on the keyboard.
Yep, there it is. In the top right corner is a key with the
abstract triangle on rectangle marking. And a printed label
stuck on the keyboard that reads:
hold the eject key to open disc drive
Obvious, innit? Of course the eject button is some distance
away from the drive. Of course a Mac user expects to push
special function keys instead of pointing and clicking.
The sticker is more scary than the drive. Apple *knew* that
this was a bad design and they shipped it anyway. Is this
how Apple will deal with usability problems in the future,
by telling the customer to RTFM?
--
Hugh Fisher
My opinion, not my employer
Matti Vuori
news:3CB4F10D...@anu.edu.au:
> Yep, there it is. In the top right corner is a key with the
> abstract triangle on rectangle marking. And a printed label
> stuck on the keyboard that reads:
> hold the eject key to open disc drive
>
> Obvious, innit? Of course the eject button is some distance
> away from the drive. Of course a Mac user expects to push
> special function keys instead of pointing and clicking.
Not push, but "hold", whatever that means.
They must have done some usability evaluations, because Apple's site tells
that the button is "convenient"...
> The sticker is more scary than the drive. Apple *knew* that
> this was a bad design and they shipped it anyway. Is this
> how Apple will deal with usability problems in the future,
> by telling the customer to RTFM?
I have never used a Mac. Perhaps this is an improvement? Perhaps there were
previously places which would have benefited from a sticker (physical or
virtual), but didn't.
Do they still have that round mouse? I guess that's one of the previous
examples of art over function.
--
Matti Vuori, <http://sivut.koti.soon.fi/mvuori/index-e.htm>
Jeff Collins
> The sticker is more scary than the drive. Apple *knew* that
> this was a bad design and they shipped it anyway. Is this
> how Apple will deal with usability problems in the future,
> by telling the customer to RTFM?
I suppose you could also say that cars shipping with manual
transmissions are poorly designed because the user has to learn to use
them while cars with automatics are easier. But I think you'll agree
incentives remain for companies to offer manual transmissions: they
appeal to a certain market of drivers.
Apple long ago moved away from the primacy of usability for first time
users in favor of earning a profit. (As evidence, consider the advert
for QuickTime Pro that pops up each day until registered. Or consider
their move to Unix core in OS X with all its attendant difficulties for
new users.)
I think Apple tries to provide a satisfying experience that
differentiates their hardware from others. Your hand soon learns to
press the eject button on the keyboard on its way to the drive. After a
day or two, using the "normal" computers with their buttons by the door
seems awkward and less efficient: Your hand has to hang out by the
drive, waiting for it to open while on the Mac, the door's already open
by the time your hand gets there.
cheers,
Jeff
--
I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals.
I'm a vegetarian because I hate vegetables.
Victor Panlilio
> After ten minutes of futile searching I went and asked the
> local Mac expert. He told me to look for a special eject key
> on the keyboard.
> Yep, there it is. In the top right corner is a key with the
> abstract triangle on rectangle marking. And a printed label
> stuck on the keyboard that reads:
> hold the eject key to open disc drive
*sigh*
The so-called "abstract triangle on rectangle marking," in case Hugh
failed to notice, is used on most consumer CD/DVD players, so it's not
nearly as obscure as he asserts. Once we learn where the eject key is
(just as we learn on other systems to press a button that is
physically on the drive) then the cognitive load to take the
appropriate action is trivial. The decision to put an eject key on the
keyboard stems in part, I think, from the need to reduce the chance of
accidentally opening the drive or ejecting the disk on a portable --
the key is shielded by the closed lid. Maintaining this placement on a
desktop keyboard may not make much sense unless you use both a
portable and a desktop and find yourself (as I do) instinctively
reaching for the key in the same place. But why omit the eject button
from the drive door itself on a desktop (e.g. the new iMac) or tower
design? Certainly some of the reason is cosmetic and might seem
unwarranted.
Yet, if we were to follow the logic of Hugh's argument, it would make
sense for auto manufacturers to include an "open" button near or right
on the gas filler flap of every car. Yet, they do not -- in many
cases, as on my Honda, the release is inside the car, with NO WAY for
me to open the flap from the outside of the vehicle. The control is
marked with a gas pump symbol, and I didn't spend ten minutes of
futile searching for it.
If adding an eject button to the streamlined exterior of the G4
Quicksilver case has been ruled out by Jobsian edict, one possible
alternative is to add a near-field proximity sensor that can be
enabled/disabled through MacOS X System Preferences, so that when your
hand comes within, say, an inch of the door and you retract it, the
door will open and the drive tray will slide out. This is standard on
some stereo systems, e.g. from Bang and Olufsen, and you only have to
learn it once as well. It's a gesture-based human-machine interaction
that we should be accustomed to, since we do it with hand dryers in
washrooms. I must point out, however, that this type of design was
already tried on the power switch of the now-discontinued G4 Cube, and
that caused problems too.
We must strive to balance usability with appearance -- and in the case
of the iPod controller wheel and acceleration software, the designers
got it right even as they created modernist art.
Although I sympathize with Hugh's frustration, I have also observed
that my two-year old son has no problem learning how to work the power
and play buttons on the CD player in his room and on other players
elsewhere in the house. Since my son cannot yet read words but is able
to identify individual letters, he is using his current level of
visual literacy to remember what the symbols stand for. At his tender
age, my son already knows what the "abstract triangle on rectangle
marking" means, and he didn't have to consult a local expert. :-)
Michael Valentiner=Branth
> The so-called "abstract triangle on rectangle marking," in case Hugh
> failed to notice, is used on most consumer CD/DVD players, so it's not
> nearly as obscure as he asserts. Once we learn where the eject key is
> (just as we learn on other systems to press a button that is
> physically on the drive) then the cognitive load to take the
> appropriate action is trivial.
>
On the CD/DVD players you have the *context*: The button with the
"strange" symbol can only apply to a function on the player.
With the button on the keyboard among a lot others the context to the CD
drive is missing.
> Yet, if we were to follow the logic of Hugh's argument, it would make
> sense for auto manufacturers to include an "open" button near or right
> on the gas filler flap of every car. Yet, they do not -- in many
> cases, as on my Honda, the release is inside the car, with NO WAY for
> me to open the flap from the outside of the vehicle. The control is
> marked with a gas pump symbol, and I didn't spend ten minutes of
> futile searching for it.
>
For more than one year now I have a car that also has such a stupid
button inside the car. I still didn't get used to it. So at the gas
station I often have to climb back into my car to get the flap opened.
Using the central locking system, which is in nearly every today's car,
there wouldn't be any need for such a button.
Michael
--
The system-user is concerned with operational effectiveness, not with
the designer's problems of creating the system. (W.E.Woodson)
Suzanne
> Using the central locking system, which is in nearly every today's car,
> there wouldn't be any need for such a button.
What is a central locking system? Are you talking about the electronic
door locks, and having the filler access door unlocked every time the
regular doors are unlocked? I think that would be very much different
from the typical user's conceptual model.
In addition, at least in California, you usually have to pay before
you pump. If that payment involves going into the station, rather than
paying at the pump, it would mean either:
1. Unlock the car door, get out, leaving all doors unlocked while
going into the gas station. (Not what I want to do, particularly if
there are valuables in the car.)
2. Get out, relock the doors before going into station. Come back,
unlock one of the passenger compartment doors in order to unlock gas
filler door. Then (finally) pump gas. If necessary, relock car doors,
then go into station to retrieve credit card.
3. Get out, run around to back of car to open filler door. Go back to
passenger compartment door and lock it before going into station. Pump
gas, retrieve card if necessary, unlock door and depart. This is
probably the best solution, assuming that you would remember to run
back to open the filler door before locking the car door. (Which seems
unlikely, because it is even more of a break from the convention than
the filler door release inside the car.)
I'm not trying to be argumentative. It's just that there are definite
costs that go with the benefits of using the central locking system
(assuming I understood what you meant). For what it's worth, I think
that all possible options have significant trade-offs.
Suzanne
Suzanne
Terry Eden
news:3CB7F32C...@uclalumni.net...
> In addition, at least in California, you usually have to pay before
> you pump. If that payment involves going into the station, rather than
> paying at the pump, it would mean either:
You crazy Californians ;-) In most of Europe you pay after you've pumped,
either at the pump (using credit card) or inside the station. The central
locking aspect would be most welcome for some of those users. ALthough
those with small children might not want them to be able to leave the car...
All the cars that I have driven have a seperate lock on the petrol [gas]
cap. Sometimes with a different key to the engine/locks, sometimes not.
Personally I find that the most convenient.
1) People don't tend to leave their keys in their cars,
2) Fitt's law - the distance between the cap and the thing that unlocks it
is negliable.
3) Fewer security concerns all round.
Terry
Michael Valentiner=Branth
> All the cars that I have driven have a seperate lock on the petrol [gas]
> cap. Sometimes with a different key to the engine/locks, sometimes not.
>
IMHO that was in the time, before central locking systems came up.
Or it was necessary, if the central locking system did not include the gas
filler door.
Michael Valentiner=Branth
> What is a central locking system? Are you talking about the electronic
> door locks, and having the filler access door unlocked every time the
> regular doors are unlocked?
>
Yes.
> I think that would be very much different
> from the typical user's conceptual model.
>
It seems, we live in different cultures.
Terry already wrote how we Europeans do it.
These buttons inside the car came to Europe with japanese cars. I don't
know about the gas stations in Japan, but I can imagine, that the
Japanese build them in for the american market.
It seems, I pay a prize for globalization every time at the gas station
<g>. I have to use the inside button, but don't have the low US prizes
for gas.
> Go back to
> passenger compartment door and lock it before going into station.
>
My car has a remote control for the central locking.<g>
Geoffrey Peters
> On all the beige PowerMacs and Macs before them, and on every
> PC, and on the average consumer CD player, there is a button
> underneath the CD drive. You press it, the tray slides out.
> In the top right corner is a key with the abstract triangle on rectangle
> marking. And a printed label stuck on the keyboard that reads:
> hold the eject key to open disc drive
>
> Obvious, innit? Of course the eject button is some distance
> away from the drive. Of course a Mac user expects to push
> special function keys instead of pointing and clicking.
Well, consider the history of the CD mechanism in the two years we've
had the "El Capitan" enclosure on the Mac minitowers.
When Apple dropped the platinum livery (sorry, the last beige Mac made
rolled off the Fremont factory floor in 1987 - beige is a light shade
brown) and adopted this curvy new look, the button on the drive door was
still there, but now mounted in the centre. Symmetry is important to
both Steve Jobs and Jonathan Irvine. The button worked, but by gum it
was a shoddy affair - instead of affixing the bezel to the front of the
drive tray (the way the Xbox does, for example) they had a spring loaded
door, the button had to go through a mechanical pressure relay, and the
only way to close it was to push on the drawer itself.
People did grumble about this less-than-elegant approach, so something
was done about it. And after the mis-fire of the Cube's power switch,
the decision was made to move the button to where lots of other buttons
are - the keyboard.
> The sticker is more scary than the drive. Apple *knew* that
> this was a bad design and they shipped it anyway.
It is not a bad design. When I first encountered this, I hesitated when
there was no button under my fingertip, looked down at the keyboard and
found the "Eject" icon at the top right. Cool, and to me it made perfec
sense.
> Is this how Apple will deal with usability problems in the future, by
> telling the customer to RTFM?
You're just grumbling because Apple have decided to live up to their own
motto of "Think Different". You are disapproving of the fact that Apple
now use a non-standard method of media-device control when you use an OS
that's completely off to left-field? ;-)
(I use Macs too, have done since '84, just tickling your ribs a bit :))
I mean, think about it for a moment. It removes an ungainly pimple from
the front of the box, places the controlling mechanism in a different
but still conventient place, and is just as easy to become accustomed
to. (The off to that one is, "but not when you work with a mixed bag of
old button-tray computers and that new Mac keyboard-only approach" :)).
It also improves security - you could have the G4 running a demo off a
CD of some kind and leave it up next to the monitor (yeah, show off
those curves, baby!), yank the keyboard off USB and you're set. Although
I wish there was still a cover over the speaker ...
Geoffrey
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Suzanne
> You crazy Californians ;-) In most of Europe you pay after you've pumped,
> either at the pump (using credit card) or inside the station. The central
> locking aspect would be most welcome for some of those users. ALthough
> those with small children might not want them to be able to leave the car...
In the US, at least, there are child safety locks on the back doors,
which would prevent children in the back seat from opening the doors.
(Not that this would stop a child from climbing over the front seats
to get out the front doors.)
>
> All the cars that I have driven have a seperate lock on the petrol [gas]
> cap. Sometimes with a different key to the engine/locks, sometimes not.
> Personally I find that the most convenient.
> 1) People don't tend to leave their keys in their cars,
> 2) Fitt's law - the distance between the cap and the thing that unlocks it
> is negliable.
> 3) Fewer security concerns all round.
I don't think too many vehicles in the US have the key-locking fuel
access door. The last car I had with one was over 15 years ago. I
agree that this is probably the best solution overall, though. I
almost said as much in my last post, but got distracted and forgot.
Suzanne