Very serious thought here. Long time ago, I had a software company selling stuff for research. Everytime the programmers came up with someting they thought particularly cool, they woudl eventually persuade those in the marketing team to adopt their ideas. The programmers were not researchers and, as elegant as their soltuions were, most clients ignored the stuff.
One day, I asked our biggest client why his company bought our software. His reply was that they could copy the graphs for use in their pubications ( a feature that we unare of...).
Unless every end user is a member of this forum, the golden rule has been forgottten. WE ARE NOT THE END CUSTOMERS.
I take my hat off to the guys doing this stuff; I love it - frustrated sometimes, but this is streaks ahead of most other software.
My question is; are they running a charity? If this was a commercial enterprise, the development team would listen less to the expert members of this forum and rely more on market research. Believe me, I would love MC to become a defacto-standard for the ultimate media centre. But it ain't going to happen like this.
Some of you may recognise this, but I have two tests for software; first is, can I use it without recourse to the help files/manual/forum? The second is, can my 80 year old mother use it? Perhaps the opposite ends of the spectrum, but the logical organisation of functionality and features needs to be pedantically thought through.
iTunes and SlimDevices are successful because of the user interfaces. Heaven knows what goes on behind the scenes, but most people don't care.
Sorry, bit of a rant seeing that MC11 is nearly ready. There was lots of interface optimisation that I had hoped would make its way into this version. Features versus useability...
A Very Happy Easter to All,
nick
Author
Topic: Happy Easter & Interfaces (Read 1025 times)