SOFTware is **SOFT** Get it, monkey?

Proprietary software is often so sucky. (CD writer software in particular. But let's talk about scanners for a moment.) Here's a snapshot of the software that came bundled with my scanner.

Oooh! Isn't it smooth.

What sucks is that the design deliberately mimics a piece of *HARD*ware.

Does software usually have an OFF button in the middle!? My crappy $36 stereo has that. It's the last place you look when you need to escape. But I expect my crappy stereo to lack usability, because it is hard to fix.

But software should be far more useable that hardware, you gimps!

Software can be improved very rapidly. It is **SOFT**

Hardware is a village idiot compared with software. Hardware should be based on software. Software is where the lessons are learnt!

Ahhh. I don't really mind. I just wanted to share it with you guys and ladies. You seem nice. And kind of cute, too. Keep up the hard work you industious sons and daughter of this electric age.

'Benjimawoo' on Fri, 26 Nov 2004 11:18:00 GMT, sez:

And of course, there's nothing quite as bad as the old 'Remote Control' UI (as used by sooo many DVD players...)

'Jason' on Fri, 26 Nov 2004 12:06:09 GMT, sez:

I really want to know what that smile button does, too... :)

'Farmer Jeb' on Fri, 26 Nov 2004 21:33:33 GMT, sez:

I spend my life writing business software that has to conform to all sorts of standards and be as efficient to use as possible (ie. boring). If I got to write a tiny little UI like this with only about 10 features that would be easy enough to use even if the close button was in the middle than goddammit I'd make it cute too. I like it!

'secretGeek' on Sat, 27 Nov 2004 07:36:50 GMT, sez:

yeh -- i was a bit out of whack with all that. I may have been inadvertantly channelling the spirit of adolf hitler.

It //is// a nice cute little interface and I shouldn't blog when drunk.

'leon' on Sat, 27 Nov 2004 08:03:52 GMT, sez:

oh -- the smiley button is for configuring 'Personal Style'.

'Andrew Green' on Sat, 27 Nov 2004 20:21:54 GMT, sez:

Leon, You write about usability alot. I think you harbour dreams on becoming a UX/UI/whatever guru... is that a Jakob Neilsen book I see on your desk?! C'mon, come clean, fella.

'David Burke' on Mon, 29 Nov 2004 11:37:38 GMT, sez:

What I find most superfluous about this design, is the presence of "holes" on the front; which presumably are for an internal speaker.

'secretGeek' on Mon, 29 Nov 2004 22:12:41 GMT, sez:

nice to hear from you Dave. I just referred someone to your blog yesterday, in relation to an encryption problem.

yes, i put my ear very close to those little dots, but i couldn't hear any sound. what gives?

'Michael Giagnocavo' on Wed, 01 Dec 2004 22:16:00 GMT, sez:

I couldn't agree more! Another example is XLite / XPro by Xten. It's a softphone. That has a UI as crappy as a cell phone. Everywhere. Including the options, where you can set tons of fields to many different values. Utter crap.

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