On Dec 11, 2007, at 9:20 AM, Sachendra Yadav wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Initially mobile phones used to have Play, Pause, Previous, Next (in
> some cases Stop instead of Pause). Of late, quite a few mobile phones
> have started adding Forward and Reverse within the current song.
>
> Does Forward/Reverse add any solid value in a music player for mobile
> phones or is it an unnecessary feature creep which can be dropped?


Depends on how the fwd/rev buttons are implemented.  Are they separate  
buttons, or are they integrated into the next/prev like many cd  
players? (i.e. Press the button to skip the track.  Hold the button to  
scan within the current track.)  If the fwd/rev functionality is  
mapped to the current physical buttons, then who cares?  It's a  
transparent feature, and it's not like fwd/rev is overly complex and  
buggy.  Many people might not even notice that the functionality  
exists, and people looking for the functionality will have been  
conditioned to expect it on those buttons from interactions with cd  
players.  If new physical buttons are added, then why was this method  
chosen? Is the interface too cluttered?  Are the buttons too small?

If you mean "why would someone even use this functionality?"  Then  
there's plenty of reasons.  podcasts, skipping 8 minutes of silence to  
get to the "hidden" song on an album.  (Now there's a usability  
issue!  What's up with "hiding" songs?)

Adding features isn't bad per se.  It's the addition of features that  
interfere with using the product that is bad.

--
Jonathan Koren
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~jonathan/


________________________________________________________________
*Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah*
February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA
Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/

________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help

Reply via email to