Regular K

As some of you already know, I finally bought an iPod yesterday! Having one to play with on my own really shows me just why this is one of the most demanded consumer electronics on the market today. The simple, clean user interface is very functional and elegant, yet manages to have an eye-catching and memorable design. I don’t know of many people who don’t recognize the look of the iPod or the signature white earbuds. Then again, maybe it’s because the hard-disk MP3 player market is dominated by the iPod. Either way, it’s the product of great design and great marketing.

Although I really like my iPod, I do have one criticism about the usability of the interface - it needs an on/off button. As it currently stands, pressing anywhere on the click-wheel will start up the iPod, which is fine with me. However, turning off the iPod is not intuitive at all. You need to hold the play/pause button for about three seconds to turn it off. I don’t think that many people would be able to figure this out without reading the instruction manual. You get used to it pretty quickly, but it’s always better to make the learning curve as flat as possible. The addition of a small on/off button on the top of the iPod would not harm the current design at all and it would really help new users.

Other than that, I love my iPod. It’s fun marveling at the interface … it’s so simple, yet it performs so many functions intuitively. Moments like these really validate my desire to focus on usability for my degree, though I don’t think there’s really an option or program for that in UBC computer science. Maybe I’ll save it for grad school.