I saw a picture of the new iPods last weekend. I think Apple released them earlier this week, but the truth is I haven't been paying attention and don't really care. It didn't take long to make me totally decide against them, and not for the fact they look bad (although white isn't my thing), but the usability. Now I know the iPod UI is always praised for being so great, but I think that's maybe more the appearance of being so simple and easy to use. It's the same thing as the one button mouse. This is not necessarily a rip on the iPod (which is likely a decent portable music player even if I'm unlikely to ever own one), but the whole trend of user interfaces.

Our society had become obsessed with making things appear simple and featureless in the name of being chic. Apple is one of the key examples in technology, but especially in the general sense, they are not alone. I will say that visually their stuff does look good. It has been said that there is one intuitive user interface and all else is learned, and that statement is very true. Our world is complex, and society demands things to do more than expected, the expected growing quickly with increasing price. The flip side is it's expected to be "simple". Show someone two devices with equal functionality with, one with 20 buttons and one with 5, and people (well, non-geeky people) will pick the one with 5 buttons. The reason will be "because it's simpler".

Lets say that device is a digital music player. Now, the one with 20 buttons you want to turn on, so you hit the power button. Now the immediate comeback is the play button probably turns on the 5 button device. That's very true, but think for a second why you immediately think that. If you have used an iPod the reason is obvious. Lets say you were the first person to see the iPod - still sorta seems to make intuitive sense, right? Have you maybe used a portable CD player or VCR before though? In fact, you've probably grown up with them most you your life, and don't remember trying to figure them out for the first time. That can be pushed further to say how did you identify the play (or power for that matter) button? Insert something about standards and people learning and knowing them here... We'll throw out the thoughts about what if you don't want the music to start right away and things along that line for now.

At this point you're probably thinking I'm a ranting nutcase I won't argue that here, but will say the above has become a reasonable shortcut for the average target of most any music product due to people getting used to it. Lets say however that you want to adjust the volume on these same two devices. The 20 button one you hit the volume up or down button. The 5 button this function is on a "soft key" that changes it's function to be context sensitive. At this stage it's simple to figure out for your target audience (on the iPod it works like the volume knob on your previously used devices). Pretty simple and it wouldn't be bad if this was the device's only function.

We're talking digital music players in this example though, so it's likely you'll want to select a song. The player of your choice has a menu. You can go navigate the menu using either a joystick or direction pad or the soft buttons/wheel. Now lets say you're in the middle of browsing through the list and the song you have playing finishes up and the next song starts, which just happens to be very loud. Now you can go on about volume normalization and stuff, but lets say you just want to turn down the volume. On they 20 button device you push the volume down button. How many key presses does it take on the 5 button device? Can you do it without loosing your place in the playlist you were browsing? People adapt, and things like the iPod have a very well engineered interface to make the above as non-intrusive as possible. However this goes along the same lines as why your computer/OS is almost always more stable than the alternatives - humans change to suit available resources and needs without even realizing it.

These interfaces can have an advantage - they allow gradual learning (more complex functions are more advanced things, easy escape back to known space if you get lost) and tend to stick. For a personal device (at least semi-known state) and one used routinely it actually sorta makes sense. For casual or one time use though, it can be a hassle. Those that have been over to my place know my setup for movies and music. While I know what every knob and button does, it's unlikely that anyone else does or even cares. Unless you're planning on pulling out the SPL meter and test disc and tweaking the system you probably don't care either. However people look at it and think "complex" and "I could never figure that out". Other people do use it though, and without my help too. Lets say you want to listen to a CD. The process is push CD, and push play. Not too impressive as other systems have that too.

Now lets say you want to watch a DVD. Go through the process of putting the DVD in as you would in any other player. Press DVD, push the power on the projector, and press play. For the average home setup these days, this process after putting in the DVD involves pushing power on the TV, pushing the input button repeatedly until the DVD input is selected, and doing the same with the source button on the home theater in a box receiver until the DVD sound is selected. While most people manage to figure out their own system, I always find it interesting when a non-techie goes to another person's place, or then the owner of the place calls complaining that someone was just visiting and they need help getting it back to the consistent state after the person managed to push every button a random number of times thus resulting needing to understand the system to reset it. I'll admit the single button "go to the next thing" makes it look cooler (and is usable on fully integrated installed systems - again overall UI design), but it's not as usable until you get used to it.

I've started noticing it more lately since I've been jumping around to so many diverse systems (in computers alone, my average day now involves using 3 different operating systems over a wide range of computer speeds and connection latencies and with completely different interface and usage styles). I think it's more noticeable watching others who are new to an interface try something though. I say start watching for it though. Especially those who work at a Help Desk - watch how people who are using something new to them interact with it. Then realize how bad most user interfaces are until you're used to them. Be glad you already have figured out how to use technology, probably through a good chunk of your life. And think twice about it next time you see an older person using a computer. While people who really try can almost always pick it up without a problem, think of what kind of crap they're dealing with when it comes to computer UIs.