I bought myself an iPod shuffle this week. You’ll never guess what I’m most impressed by…
“The size?” Nah – I knew it was small when I bought it.
“It’s smashing orangeyness?” Nope, that’s nice but it’s not impressive.
“Some otherwise invisible technological marvel about which you are poised to enlighten us?” Er.. No.
It’s none of that. What’s really impressed me is that Apple have made it easier to put on the headphones!
Now maybe you are thinking that you have no problem putting on headphones thanks very much; where headphone putting on is concerned you are up there with the best. Maybe you are the Roger Federer, the Sidney Crosby or the Tiger Woods of headphone donning and you are secretly hoping that putting on headphones is included in the 2012 Olympics (at LEAST as a demonstration sport) because you KNOW you’ll win gold. Well bully for you! To be honest I’ve never had a problem putting on headphones either. What’s so impressive is that Apple have made something that’s already simple even easier and as a result I (the end user) am delighted.
Can you guess what they’ve done?
Unlike any pair of headphones I’ve ever owned, especially in-the-ear headphones, they have put L & R on the inside! The place you’re naturally looking at when you try to put them on. And they’ve made the letters BIG, so you can actually read them, echoing Fitts’ Law. It’s a classic usability improvement where someone has observed how people use a product and changed the way things are done to accommodate how people are. In the days of old school “Cans” putting Left and Right on the outside made sense. That was typically the easiest place to print it and read it. But as headphones have evolved the emphasis has been to make them smaller and lighter, not easier to use. Kudos to whoever decided to change that.
I’m well aware that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here but the point that there’s value in making simple things more simple is worth remembering in software development. Think about the apps you use or you are developing, what’s the simplest task? Chances are it’s something people do often, maybe without thinking too much about it. What if you made it even easier?
What’s wrong with a little peace, love and delighting the customer?
Two things:
1. Is that why they removed the ability for you to choose what you want to listen to, to make it ‘easier’? And what does that say about your choice of music? 😉
2. Who am Sidney Crosby? Any relation to David?
I look forward to increased levels of geekiness. It can’t be a bad thing.
*shuffle*
Re. Point 1. That’s just full on, Phinneas T Barnum bravado: they actually have the guts to sell/spin the lack of control as a feature! Hats off to them I say.
And they recognise that my taste in music is unimpeachable.
This prompted me to check my Sennheiser headphones that I use when travelling and they too have the L/R on the inside of the headphones, admittedly they are engraved on the plastic so a little less obvious. I suppose they both nicked the idea from Jimmy Cricket though.
More geekiness is always good. My own geek fest blog has been sadly ignored recently. In fact I don’t think I’ve even got round to posting anything that would be considered remotely geeky.
My Sennheiser’s have them on the outside. Interesting how they vary it across models — I bet they’re putting them in the place that is most convenient for them (where there’s the most room, perhaps).
And to answer Graham, Sidney Crosby is to hockey as, um… some new young hotshot is to football. Obviously I need to learn more about football.
Sheesh… I meant Sennheisers, not Sennheiser’s.
why do head phones have different lengths of wire? L left ear usually has shorter wire than the R right ear side, why?
thankyou