Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Exercise 4 - Karan Patel



Love

Ipod touch

The affordance of my iPod touch is almost as if it wants to lure you into using it. There are only two active buttons on the iPod that are functional; the power and the home button.  The problem would be that one would almost not know how to use it if they have never used such an interface before (the software’s physical appearance)

This product has a few constraints. The first is that there is only one hole for the audio jack and also there are is only possible button to turn the iPod on, though there are two physical buttons on the iPod itself which would make it confusing to a first time user. Those are the physical constraints; the psychological constraints vary as this system can be modified according to the user preferences.  There are obvious things such as a volume limit and a brightness adjustment limit.

Mapping in this product might be sketchy to a beginner. As far as changing a song or volume goes, we see clear indicators in which direction we are headed, but to navigate to something as deep as the ABOUT screen on an iPod is not made so obvious.

Audible feedback is obvious as an iPod depends on audio to guarantee the user it has received the proper instructions i.e the click/tone sound it produces when we select something. The visual feedback is greater than previous iPods that in the iPod touch it requires good hand eye coordination to get from one screen to another; one track to another.

Hate

Digital Alarm clock

The affordance on this device is deceiving. It has four keys that say time/alarm/hour/minute and two on its right SNOOZE/ SLEEP. If you want to set the time you have to hold down the time key and then press the hour key or the minute key. A better choice would have you only press the time key once and then set the time.

The constraints in this product go along side its functionality. The constraint is that the alarm will not turn off if you press the big button that says SNOOZE on it, proper use right? They add the sleep button right next to it about half its size. After habitual use I press the sleep button even when im half asleep.  Not enough constraints such as the Laser gun alarm; It has you shoot (a laser) at a moving target in mid air for you to turn the alarm off.

Mapping in this product are done obvious except for the sleep button. I mean why keep the sleep key next to the SNOOZE button. Why not underneath the machine..a mile away..somewhere..so I can actually wake up without subconsciously getting up and turning the alarm off and jumping back onto the bed.

Audible feedback is an obvious in alarms..an annoying one at that too. Maybe an alarm ringtone would be nice. Yes sure you can get it to your morning radio station, that’s if there are no commercials going on! There is no visual feedback except for the displayed timing.


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