Last night I was having a bit of a clean out through my ever growing pile of ‘might be needed in the future’ paperwork at home when I came across a phone bill from 1994. I looked at it with fascination, seeing a great illustration of how the world has changed out of all recognition in that time frame. I’d made a call to a friend in New Zealand, and the call had been short. It was short because the pence per minute rate was frighteningly high compared to what we would expect to pay today. It prompted me to call my friend again…. Still in New Zealand, but this time I made the call over IP. It didn’t cost me anything at all.
It however, doesn’t come quite free in reality….. there is a cost… making it all useable…. Recently my daughter, like most teenagers do on a regular basis, changed her phone. The new one comes with a built in MP3 player. Her extensive iTunes collection needed transferring, and it took me several hours, including the download of format change software to sort it out.
If it takes me, a self confessed gadget freak, several hours to sort out, how does the average user, who finds it hard enough to keep up with the latest buzz words, let alone the set up and configuration, keep on top of things?
This is a subject that gets a good deal of our attention. We devote many many hours to working out how we make our services, both internal and external, easy and intuitive to use. But the world moves at such a pace, that it’s a never ending challenge. Only you can’t put it off. The technology is no longer a luxury. Even mobile phones are now considered a basic necessity in the government view of basic rights. One can only wonder what the technology world will look like in another 14 years time. I came to wondering about the next ‘IT revolution’…. Everyone is very excited about the power of ‘new ideas’ like web 2.0, web 3.0 and social networking… and good things they are… but I suspect that the next really big break through will be useability. Or maybe it will be better access to people that find it useable on your behalf…
@eclipseinternet
Eclipse Internet
Thats why I use an apple ipod touch as it is so easy to use. I had a cheap MP3 player beforehand and it was just messy to use, so I rarely used it. Apple have it right on the useability stakes. The ipod touch is great for music, but also quite good for the occassional surfing and checking on webmails too. You just doube tap the touch-screen to zoom in and out of a webpage.
You can buy music straight off the device via itunes and the music syncs with your PC the next time you ‘doc’ in. Its great as an alternative ‘photo frame’ too as it holds my family pics and videos. The ipods software id also easy to sync podcasts from the BBC radio stations and others. I listened to the ‘Archers’ for the first time in years and the script writers had even put in a bit about social networking online…!!!
Neil,
I agree that Apple have really got a march on the usability of the handheld device. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out on devices other than handhelds, such as portable computing, desktops, and even things like TVs over the coming years as they converge in their function.
Not sure i”d have admitted to listening to the Archers though…..