Apple Everyday Keeps Confusion Away

I've had an iPod for quite some time now, close to seven years at this point, but it wasn't until I started to look closer at usability that I noticed just how user friendly it is.  Many people are pretty used to this specific technology by now, but for those that aren't the iPod is a portable MP3/video player.  Of course it has other features, such as games, alarms, calendar, pictures, etc.  Fortunately for consumers it does all of these things very well.

In "The Psychopathology of Everyday Things" one of the points that stood out to me the most was when he discussed the problem of single buttons having multiple functions.  With the iPod there are only five buttons and one sliding key, with all but one of these buttons being clearly marked.  The five buttons have six functions, however, the button with two functions is the easy and convenient play/pause button.  The button that isn't labeled happens to be the "select" button, but due to the design natural mapping easily leads you to conclude that the button dead center of the device would be the one to push if you were trying to select something.  The only feature that might appear to be slightly confusing at first is the scroll function.  In order to scroll you have to drag your finger on the circular button pad, but hey, at least clockwise scrolls forward and counter clockwise scrolls backwards.  For the record, as soon as you turn your iPod on it's almost inevitable that you will immediately figure out the scrolling function.

I agree with Jonathan Lazar in his article "Designing Senior-Friendly Living, or Why Doesn't My Cable Work?" when he touched on the fact that people who aren't tech savvy aren't necessarily afraid of technology, they just want it to be simple and convenient.  Even as a twenty-something who can figure out most technologies, I still get frustrated when products are confusing and not user friendly.  Thank goodness for Apple and their ability to make one of my everyday devices simple, convenient, and very user friendly.  Especially since my dad, who for the record STILL does not own a computer, could figure the iPod out with very little difficulty.  I would definitely say that Apple did an excellent job when they designed this product.  Since the button layout and design hasn't changed from it's original release I'm assuming that other customers feel the same way that I do.  Simplicity, usability, and organization sell.  Just ask Apple.

Barnes and Noble Gets an A+ for Usability

As an English major, and someone who enjoys reading, I occasionally have to make a run to the local Barnes and Noble.  After living at home for 18 years and finally adjusting to how everything is set up at the Barnes and Noble there, I had to readjust when I moved to college and start attempting to figure it out once again.  Even though I like to read, 99% of the time I'm completely lost in a big bookstore.  It seems as if there are an unlimited amount of sections and even if you know where the section is, you can't be quite sure of exactly what books you are going to find located within the section.  Thankfully, the smart people who operate Barnes and Noble installed computer kiosks to help ease the process of finding what you're looking for.

The computer stations, randomly scattered throughout the store, give you all the information you need to find what you want.  There are different categories to help ease your search as well.  You can search by title, author, subject, keyword, or even ISBN.  I've only found the ISBN to help me when I look for textbooks, but if you happen to have the ISBN number for the book you're looking for it would be extremely useful.  On countless occasions this computer system has saved me an hour of wandering and guess work. 

I can actually remember one time this summer my friend and I had heard about this book called "Smoke Screen".  When we typed "Smoke Screen" into the title search it turns out that there are quite a few books with that title.  Thankfully the "subject" and "keyword" functions helped us out and we quickly found the book we were looking for.  Along with the ease of locating books, the computer system also lets you know right away if the book is available in the store.  If the book isn't in stock you can find out which other store locations have it or you have the option of ordering it.  This feature is nice because you don't end up wasting your time looking for a book that isn't currently in stock.

Overall, I definitely think that this technology is user friendly.  I have a lot of first hand experience with the Barnes and Noble computer kiosks and I give them an A+ for usability.  The system has made my shopping experiences more enjoyable and a lot of my friends feel the same way.  Technology can either be your best friend or your worst enemy.  In my case, the Barnes and Noble computer kiosks turned out to be a saving grace.