radish Wrote: > A tired analogy - Granny's are not the universal measure of usability. > Neither are geeks - it is just an analogy, nothing more.
radish Wrote: > When writing documentation and designing interfaces there is always a > level of assumed knowledge and experience - there has to be. Cars do > not come with books telling you how to drive - it's assumed you already > know. Likewise, when designing the interface for the car, the > manufacturer is careful not to stray to far from the conventional. > Computers do not come with operating instructions either, you typically > get a piece of paper showing you how to connect the wires, and then some > quick start guide to Windows XP. Really pretty useless for most people > who are either completely new to the whole thing (what's a mouse?) or > already know the basics and need to be told the more complex stuff. > > Now I'm not saying the SlimServer UI/docs are perfect - far from it - > but assuming a basic level of domain knowledge (what's an mp3, what's a > tag) is perfectly fair - the trick is to get it right. Set the bar too > high and you're flamed for being exclusive, or geek oriented, set it > too low and you waste time writing docs which no one will read. > I agree that not straying from the conventional should be the target of the UI however i think that assuming all Squeezebox users will have a knowledge of MP3 and tags is a major mistake. This is not the conventional for a large number of people. The Slimdevices homepage states "Squeezebox lets you easily access any song in your music collection, from any room in your home. It delivers pure digital sound without the hassle of shuffling through CDs." So how do I take a pile of CDs and a PC and combine them ? The documentation really should tell me how. radish Wrote: > > Because one reads the tags and one doesn't. Personally, from a UI > perspective, I think BMF is a mistake. I know lots of people love it, > which is why it's there, but if the DB based browses could be > customized to allow people to order things how they like then hopefully > the need for BMF would vanish, and with it a lot of headaches. > I think you miss the point - This is the technical explaination. It is not an explaination from the UI point of view. -- NeilH ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NeilH's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=822 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18651 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
