According to MSN.co.uk which conducted the survey, computer problems are “as frustrating for people as being stuck in traffic or losing a wallet” . Almost half of users say that they just want a computer that “works” and would like to avoid “flashy updates” or new features.

Probably half of the frustration can be attributed to hardware issues, drivers compatibility and overall OS stability issues. But the other half is purely in hands of UI designers. Things like UI inconsistency, badly designed workflows, confusing colour schemes and mystifying error messages – each taking valuable user time and creating a frustrating user experience.

For those who still think they don’t need to employ UX or UI designers,  just think about saving your valuable customers four days a year by simply creating a better interface.

What’s the reason? Usability I guess. Google is an adept in making usable apps. All their apps are highly intuitive and usable, albeit ugly. I save great deal of time when I have all apps in one window talking to each other. The ugliness of design elements does bother me but the usability pays me back in time saved.

I guess to justify Google’s approach to UI, they need to think about every bite going through their server with the amount of data they process. To a certain degree they comply with a basic rule of design: Take out everything that is not necessary until you can’t anymore and then you have a well designed product. (Michelangelo used to joke that his trade is very easy. Take a rock and cut off everything unnecessary).

The gestures work great. Very usable . Especially swiping back though web pages. Scroll with momentum works and feels exactly as one in iPhone, which is very intuitive and beats Logitec’s Hyper-fast scrolling feature.

Apple's MagicMouse

The only 2 things bother me so far and they are really minor. First is that the thumb is positioned over 2 movable parts which creates a strange feeling that took me few days to get used to. The other thing is that if your hand are wet for any the fingers won’t “swipe” over mouse plastic making gestures almost impossible.

So if you live in a hot place with high humidity without an air conditioning MagicMouse not may be a mouse of choice for you. In any other case – highly recommended.

• Floating windows bother 78% of internet users
• Banners bother 7.6%
• Video ads bother 3.6%

Only 3.4% of users are actually order something using advertisement links.

As a designer I can’t help but love the idea of one surface that becomes what one needs it to be at the moment. I’m not moving back to physical keyboard. At least on my phone.
I don’t play many games on my iPhone and when I do tactile feedback is not something I miss.

The possibility of tactile feedback was mentioned in the original iPhone patent application and last year Apple filled “Keystroke tacility arrangement on a smooth touch surface” patent. It desscribes various tactile feedbacks on a smooth sureface keyboard such as:

• Braille-like dot pairs or bars at key centers
• Articulating frame that protrudes at key edges during typing
• Articulating frame that deforms surface cover at key edges during typing
• Rigid frame under key edges with compressible key centers

We may see it implemented in rumoured Apple Tablet Mac that supposedly should surface in next few months. So it looks like touchscreen are going to become smarter and more “user-freiendly”.

Editing Text (email, TextEdit, Pages, etc)

  ⌥ ←       Move one word left
  ⌥ →       Move one word right
  ⌘ ←       Beginning of line
  ⌘ →       End of line
            Scroll one page up (cursor retains position)
            Scroll one page down (cursor retains position)
  ⌥         Move one page up  (reposition cursor)
  ⌥         Move one page down
  ⌘ ↑ or   Scroll to beginning of document
  ⌘ ↓ or   Scroll to end of document

  Add shift key ⇧ to the above to also SELECT the text.

  ⌥ ⌫       Delete word
  ⌥ Del     Delete next word

  ⌥ Scrollbar           Jump to exact scrollbar location
  ⌥ Scrollbar arrows    Scroll page at a time (page up/down)
  ⌥ Volume up/down      Open Sound preferences
  ⌥ Brightness up/down  Open Display preferences

I guess the term “design” is referring solely to its look.  Judging by the specs the mouse can do no more than any other mouse on the market for $30.

To me, Apple’s Magic Mouse that supports gestures is far more intelligent and far more sanely priced ($69)

Intelligent Mouse vs. Magic Mouse

But there is one absolutely mysterious question I can’t find an answer to. There is no keyboard shortcut for song rating. I can pump up volume using keyboard. I can even put the iTunes window in the Dock (Command-M),  I can turn the visualizer on or off, I can do lots of very useful and not so useful things using keyboard shortcuts.  I  can even mute the sound while it keeps playing (!) - something which probably only a real iTune Pro would need.  ….. But I can’t rate a song! Instead I have catch my mouse, aim at the song, right click and then chose rating from a menu.

I rate songs 10-15 times a day (well, I buy lot of music). I never even wondered what might be a shortcut for muting a song while it is playing…

I purchased CoverSutra ($22!!!) for this single feature. The app does many other not-so-needed tricks. It provides a descent user experience modestly sitting in the top bar and puts a nice CD cover image on my desktop.

So, I’m not upset. I rather curious why Apple, a company that spends so much efforts designing user experience and is a pioneer of user centered GUI design, would ignore this extremely useful feature?

1. Adobe focused on workflow and user experience.
2. They kept most of great Macromedia GUI innovations and greatly developed some of them further.
3. FireWorks has become a full member of CS family.
4. PDF workflow is greatly improved and has become really usable comparing to previous versions.
5. Unified interfaces.
6. Great improvements usability of AI and ID tools. Now there is no need to go through few windows to change opacity or gradient for instance.
7. I generally like updates. Fresh wave in daily routine or interaction with the computer.