I am such a sucker for Apple products. I’m waiting for my commission check to come in the mail after all the times I have preached Apple to anyone who will listen (or won’t listen). But watching this video was pushing me to a hard realization……. Apple…. is…. not….. perfect……?
I don’t have an IPhone, but I do have painful IPhone jealousy. Maybe it’s because my droid screen is cracking and the back cover fell off… or maybe it is the beautiful seamless (usually) interface. Apple products are so user friendly that I just seem to “get them.” But obviously it’s not just me because why else would they be so popular. Apple has managed to make something that nearly everyone can understand. Unlike my Blackberry, whose ringtone I never managed to change, the IPhone is intuitive.
Edward Tufte had a point: less information isn’t necessarily better. If the design is correct, there can be more information. However, I do disagree with the examples he included. I admit, I’m not a stock market buff, so this could really just be me, but the cartoony feeling of the IPhone interface is one of the only examples of stock market information that I can absorb. The same goes for the weather app he critiqued. Yes the IPhone allows for beautiful, high resolution videos, but when I wake up, roll over, and check the weather, I couldn’t give a lick about a video. The IPhone interface delivers exactly what I want: the bare minimum. I want to know the following things: 1. is it cold/hot/warm out 2. is it raining 3. nothing else, that was it. I think Apple has mastered the ability to show me what I want, when I want it. Beautiful design doesn’t include ALL the information that has EVER been, but it shows me what I want and provides a way to access the rest. Sigh, I am not saying the IPhone is perfect all the time, just that the examples Tufte chose were not relevant to me. My biggest problem with the IPhone is the one button navigation. I just get a lil confused.
Anyways, if you want more information, there’s probably an app for that.