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Out of context: Reply #6
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- raf0
monospaced, how did Windows suddenly get into this discussion?
I feel as if I criticized Obama's shoes and someone called me a McCain supporter out of the blue.
This is a very flawed logic.
Just because I don't like Obama's shoes doesn't mean I don't like him and most of all, that I like his opponent.(That's just an example, in fact, I don't like neither of them, huh...)
Let me elaborate...
One of reasons for Apple's success is that they apply certain rules to the design their products. One of the rules boils down to "don't give the user too much choice". I never said it was a bad policy. It is actually based on deep study of consumer/user behaviour. People get lost when presented with too much choice and walk away.
As 37 Signals' David Heinemeier Hansen puts it in a recent interview:
Q: "My question is about giving users choices. Do you think offering users more choice or less is preferable?"
DHH: "Less choice by a very wide margin. There's a lot of interesting research going on in this right now, actually. There's a book called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz that discusses a number of scientific studies done in grocery stores. A typical grocery store has about 41 varieties of jams and marmalade available. The study measured how many people would go over to the wall, look at a few different types of marmalade and jam, and then actually choose to buy something and go home. Then they contrasted that to a wall with only three different kinds you could pick. I think the sales on the wall with three choices were something like 40 percent higher.
Then they analyzed all the qualitative feedback that stemmed from that interaction. People faced with a ton of choice very easily became insecure. Am I picking the right one? Is there something else that's actually going to taste better? They highly doubted their choices and ended up not buying anything at all, afraid of being disappointed.
That research can apply directly to software, at both the infrastructure level of software like Ruby on Rails that appeals to programmers, as well as for end users. Most people just want to get stuff done. They don't want to sit and tinker. They don't want to spend time setting stuff up. They just want really good defaults. Again, going back to the chef metaphor, you want your dish coming out of the kitchen ready to eat."
http://uxmagazine.com/strategy/l…This is very congruent with Apple policy.
Apple has an often updated publication on their UI desigh principles, called Human Interface Guidelines (to which I linked in a note above). It says, literally:"During the design process, if you discover problems with your product design, you might consider applying the 80 percent solution—that is, designing your software to meet the needs of at least 80 percent of your users. This type of design typically favors simpler, more elegant approaches to problems.
If you try to design for the 20 percent of your target audience who are power users, your design may not be usable by the other 80 percent of users. Even though that smaller group of power users is likely to have good ideas for features, the majority of your user base may not think in the same way. Involving a broad range of users in your design process can help you find the 80 percent solution. "
http://developer.apple.com/mac/l…Translating to a human language: "design for the common people, not for the professionals who want and know how to configure and use more options".
This principle is reflected in many decisions of Apple, often criticized ie. by design community. We had discussions here on how Apple abandoned the designer crowd who (according to designers) are their faithful user base. Faithful? For sure, but not really the one Apple cares about most. We're the 20% of power users from the quote.
One of commonly controversial points is Apple's reluctance to give power users the choice to buy computers with matte screens.
It is simple: 80% of regular people like shiny screens, Apple offers shiny screens only.
They did bend for the MB Pro recently, but only after a year of a customer rant...Another funny moment was when Apple released MacBook Air - a lot of designers were going "how is this processor going to run Photoshop?", not realizing this computer was just not designed for them in mind – just like most (let me guess: 80%) of what Apple sells.
Just to clarify: I am an Apple customer and user, quite a satisfied one.