On Tuesday, March 25, 2003, at 07:54 AM, Heiko Hamann wrote:
ACK. I don't know why those pieces have to be so complicated. Maybe they
think that customers will equate more buttons with more technology...
Product designers tend to face two opposing demands: one is that the new product must be better and have more features than the older one. The other is that it has to be simpler and easier to use. Sometimes, these two demands come from the same person. It's not easy to reconcile the two and few do it well.
One very simple example: someone handed me a Canon EOS one day and told me it wouldn't turn on. The batteries were fresh, the on/off switch was clearly turned "on", but the LCD panel was off. Took me a while to notice that a large selector wheel was set to a position marked "L". Turning this switch from "L" to "P" or another mode turned the camera on.
Contrast this with the Pentax PZ1p. There is no "L" mode. There isn't need for one. If you want to "lock" the camera, just turn it off. If the LCD panel is off when you think it shouldn't be, just glance at the on/off switch right next to the LCD panel. In fact both the LCD panel and the switch are in the same field of view. The Canon has the on/off switch on one side of the camera and the LCD on another side requiring you to flip the camera or use your tactile sensors in conjunction with your visual senses just to verify that the camera is powered and ready. The more brain power you need to figure such things out, the less brain power you have left for creating pictures.
--jc
