Can't decide which button style to use? Just use them all.

The people over at MapMyRun.com couldn't decide which button they liked better so they went with all of them. I can understand the decision, picking a favorite button style is like picking your favorite kid.

Icons, icons, and more icons

I really like my iPhone, and I tend to enjoy games that involve real-time physics. A particular favorite is the excellent Jelly Car 2 (and the original Jelly Car). The playability of the PC-based version isn’t great, but with the iPhone’s gyro integration it is excellent. But I digress.

I saw a similar game called Chalkboard Stunts that was available for free and immediately “bought” it. Normally I wouldn’t be so quick to bash a free game, but this game usually costs money, it was just available for free for a “limited time.” Maybe like how a furniture store is constantly “going out of business.”

The first screen I saw after launching the app was this. I’ve taken the liberty of annotating it with my initial thoughts.

So here’s what I know so far. I’m playing the game I bought. I have three choices, and I can only assume one of them means “play the game”. It’s like the Monty Hall problem… Hopefully I don’t pick a goat.

I decided to follow the arrow, which I think was the correct choice, but I’m still not sure because here is the next screen I got.

So I immediately lock my application because like any good internet citizen I’m concerned about security. Then I spend some time having fun raising and lowering globes, and finally I make faces back at the ascii-art-guy. Finally I press the helmet and I can start racing. Well not quite yet.

I love the iPhone-styled “iframe” window inside this app. It’s like they got lazy and said “meh, just throw something in there.”

Selecting a level from the list just highlights it. From there, you have to figure out what to do. I got mad enough that I felt like flinging a CD, so I pressed that button. Turns out it’s supposed to be a wheel spinning (meaning “drive” or “go”) or something.

The moral of this story? Well, I don’t even think I need to say it, do I? Apparently I do because this game still ended up on my phone in this state. Put some freaking text in your UI to describe the actions to take. Don’t assume an icon is enough. PLEASE.

Uverse's dumb remote web access

I've accidentally canceled quite a few shows using Uverse's web interface to to manage my DVR.

Some asshole thought it would be a good idea to put the "Cancel Series" button in the exact same spot that most people expect to see a harmless "Cancel" button that means nevermind.

Combo boxes as "action initiators"

If there's one obvious bone-headed UI mistake that developers make it is putting actions, which are typically buttons or links, inside of combo boxes.

Combo boxes are for selecting an item (a piece of DATA) from a list, not for selecting an ACTION from a list.

WRONG

 

RIGHT

Better add "easy to use" to the list

Logitech’s updater

Have you ever dealt with the updater app for Logitech’s software? It seems to go something like this:

Logitech: I’m going to check for updates, is that OK?
Me: Yes, and don’t ask me next time, just do it.
Logitech: Great, sounds like a plan. There are no updates right now.
…
Logitech: I’m going to check for updates, is that OK?
Me: Yes, didn’t I already tell you not to ask me, just do it!
Logitech: Maybe, I forget. Oh, and there are no updates right now.
…
Logitech: I’m going to check for updates, is that OK?
Me: What the %*#@, quit asking me, just do it in the background like everyone else!
Logitech: There are no updates right now.

I haven’t quite figured out the time table, but every so often after a reboot, I get this dialog telling me Logitech is going to check for updates.

And every time I hit the configure button and verify it is set to do this automatically without prompts, yet it still asks me again. It teases me with settings to prevent this dialog, yet won’t actually obey the settings.

Then after it checks, it dutifully tells me there are no updates. Thanks Logitech!

Bill Gates Usability Rant

Pretty good email rant by Bill Gates on Windows usability is chronicled by Todd Bishop on his Microsoft Blog.

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.