Where minimalism fails: The problem with Apple’s less-is-more approach

Brian Dillard, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 1:26 pm

So I'm watching the big Apple notebook event and getting totally excited about the impressive new graphics capabilities. Finally I'll be able to get decent visuals on World of Warcraft on a Mac laptop. Then we get to the part about the new trackpads and my excitement wanes. Once again, Apple is opting for ultra-minimalist hardware and then using software to compensate (poorly) for that design choice.

Here's Steve Jobs:

We've got a new trackpad for notebooks. It's a gorgeous, large, multitouch glass trackpad for notebooks. It's 39 percent larger tracking area than before, it's multi-touch for gestures, it's glass for silky-smooth travel. And we've optimized the coefficient of friction on the glass, so it's really beautiful. And the entire trackpad is the button. It gives you more area on the trackpad and keeps you from hunting for that button. You can get multi-button support from software. And we've added some new four-finger gestures that are really nice.

Four-finger gestures may be really nice, but I'd opt for two hardware buttons any day. Whether you're playing video games or simply using productivity and development apps, you should be able to summon context menus without having to resort to arcane gestures. Apple's obsession with scaling hardware down to its essence may result in beautiful products, but usability almost always suffers. Need some more examples?

• iPod volume controls: Ever since the original model came out in 2001, users have had to cope with the iPod's irritating lack of a physical volume control. If your music library's like mine, the volume levels change drastically between tracks - even when you tell iTunes to level things. It's pretty annoying when the track changes from a quiet one to a painfully loud one while you're busy navigating some random menu. You've either got to rip your earphones out of your ears or painstakingly navigate back to "Now Playing" so you can once again adjust the volume. Then there's the single button that toggles between volume control, fast-forward, star ratings and media info. There's nothing more annoying than trying to fast-forward through a track using the slider control only to accidentally crank the volume all the way up and deafen yourself.
• Mighty Mouse: Worst mouse I've ever purchased - and also the most overpriced. The promos claimed that the single giant "button" would create a right-click or a left-click depending on how I pressed it. In reality, no matter how carefully I tried to attune my muscle memory, half of my right-clicks ended up as left-clicks instead. In the end, I disabled right- and left- click capabilities and went back to using the stupid option key. Then I really wised up, threw the Mighty Mouse in the garbage and bought an extremely ugly but extremely functional Microsoft notebook mouse.
• iPhone phone interface: The iPhone works great as an Internet device, but it's a lousy phone - and not just because of AT&T's immature 3G network. No, the real problem with the iPhone-as-phone is that its menu system is such a minimalist trainwreck. I can summon my "Favorites" list with a double-tap of the phone's single hardware button. But to get to any of the other sub-menus within the Phone application, I must launch the app, get my bearings - because the app retains whatever sub-menu I was using last time around - and then click an icon to get to Recents, or Voicemail, or Keypad. Actions that required a single click on a dedicated hardware button on my crappy old Motorola phone take three clicks and a lot of decision-making on the iPhone. Then there's the menu system once you're actually in the middle of a phone call - you know, the one that requires you to choose "Keypad" from a list of options before you can even respond to a standard touch-tone interface.

My point - and I do have one - is that minimalism should be a means to an end; the end itself should be usability. Simplifying a device's hardware does no good if it means forcing the user to think about how the software interface works. I'll almost certainly purchase one of these notebooks - possibly several. But as with so many Apple products, I'll curse softly nearly every time I use it. Apple's products are the best thing going in the notebook market, but they could still be so much better.

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Comments (20)

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1. 

   I’ll have to disagree with you on the mouse. I LOVE the Mighty Mouse. Love. It. It’s easily the best mouse I’ve ever used. The clicking works for me every single time. The bluetooth integration is perfect. The Microsoft mice (and others) either suck at bluetooth, require a cable or require a stupid dongle. The little trackball thingy is genius. It looks great and works fantastically. Though I have to admit I never use the side squeeze buttons. Shame you threw the mouse away, I would have taken it off your hands.

   Comment by Charles Wise, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 1:42 pm

2. 

   This is right on.

   I completely agree with you on the Mighty Mouse. This this is a piece of garbage. I bought an iMac that came with one of these things. I just couldn’t get used to it. I sold it and bought a wireless Logitech.

   I absolutely love my iPod touch, but feel like it would be perfect if they just added a couple of extra buttons. I walk everywhere with it, and I have to go through several steps just to change tracks or decrease the volume. Push main button, slide across screen to unlock, figure out where I am, click the name of the song, slide volume control.

   Comment by Larry Kubin, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 3:24 pm

3. 

   I am a diehard Apple fan but I swear by my Microsoft mice. They’re always the most comfortable, most durable, and most extensible of any mice I’ve ever used. I could never get used to the Mighty Mouse. You made the right decision in ditching it.

   Also, FYI, you can setup the new MacBook’s trackpad to offer both left- and right-clicking depending on where you press down on the surface. Not sure how well it works, though.

   Comment by Mike Rundle, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 3:31 pm

4. 

   Personally I think the IBM Thinkpad Trackpoint is the best notebook mouse ever (especially with 3 or more buttons), and wish Apple would just copy that but I know they never will.

   But this mouse I see as an improvement to their previous one-button mouse. At least now you can actually have a multi-button mouse, because it will detect where your finger is when you press it and you can map different locations to different buttons. At least that’s how I’m assuming it’ll work, I need to try it in person. I still hate trackpads in general, though, so an improvement doesn’t mean I’ll like it. Hopefully it doesn’t have the button detection problems that the Might Mouse has. But it probably will, and I’d probably end up just turning off the multiple buttons.

   I agree that the Mighty Mouse is absolute garbage. It’s button detection sucks, and it just feels really uncomfortable for me. I’m not the only one who feels this way about it. It came with my Mac Pro, otherwise I would have never tried it. The inexpensive Logitech MX310 is my mouse of choice.

   My gripe with the new MacBook Pros are the lack of non-glossy display option! Glossy displays are horrible. Why would Apple standardize on them??!??

   Comment by N, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 4:05 pm

5. 

   I still can’t figure out how to turn off my wife’s IPod. I use the thing every few months or so – which gives me just enough time to forget so I have to relearn it. Would an “off” button have killed them?

   Comment by Spike, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 4:11 pm

6. 

   Well, you don’t turn off iPods. You just pause them and they turn themselves off after a while.

   Comment by James Cunningham, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 4:59 pm

7. 

   I agree on the ipod volume control. I had an old 3rd gen ipod with the buttons separate from the volume slider and I liked that. I wish the buttons required a click but I never liked the newer, more minimal combined design.

   On my iphone 3G, I don’t get the behavior you’re talking about. Is that an original iphone you’re using? When I double-click on the button, I get the Favorites but I’m just in the normal Phone app with all the other functionality available.

   Comment by Matt Grommes, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 5:29 pm

8. 

   I don’t like the Mighty Mouse either, but I finally discovered that the trick to consistent right-clicking is to remove your index finger entirely from the mouse if you’re using another finger to right-click (as I do). I suspect that the reason some people don’t have any trouble is that they move their index finger to the right side to right-click, or they rest their fingers very lightly when not clicking. It seems that the mouse does not sense where the pressure is applied, but senses the contact of your fingers. Just a guess, based on what worked for me.

   On the iPhone, you seem overly confused for such a simple interface. I’ll grant you point of the extra clicks/taps, but since I assume plenty of people, like me, use it less often as a phone than a data device (and if you don’t, why would you buy one?), I can’t think of a better way to present the phone features. What do you suggest? And when I click on the phone button, I don’t understand where your decision-making and confusion comes from. The phone subsection buttons are in the same place every time. It takes a fraction of a second to tap in the known location of the button if you don’t immediately recognize that you’re already there.

   Lastly, I can’t wait to try the new clickable track pad. I don’t know about everybody else, but tapping to click doesn’t work very consistently for me on my MacBook, and I’ve had to do some weird contortions to click and drag while holding the option key and using the big button. Here’s hoping the pressure required to click is just the right amount so you can click and drag on this new pad.

   Comment by Ryan, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 5:31 pm

9. 

   I disagree about the Mighty Mouse. It’s not the best mouse I’ve ever used, and I still prefer my Logitech wireless mouse, but I’ve never had a problem right-clicking.

   As for the iPhone, not having physical buttons would be a bad decision for a regular phone. For a multi-purpose device, though, it makes perfect sense. Does it decrease the usability of the phone interface? Yes. But with physical buttons, you’d either lose the huge screen or have a significantly bigger device.

   The advantage of doing things in software is that they can *always* be changed. For example, I think that it’s too easy to accidentally select the wrong person from your favorites list if you’re using the phone with one hand. This is an easy thing to fix–just make the list items larger or switch to something more like (but not exactly like!) cover flow, where you would have to do a bit more scrolling but would have a nice, big target to hit when you find the right person. The in-call interface could be changed just as easily.

   Comment by Josh in California, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 5:46 pm

10. 

    Wow, another “when will Apple have more than one button” post. Way to go.

    The only reason you feel “forced to think about the interface” is because you aren’t thinking in Mac, you are thinking in Windows–and that isn’t Apple’s fault. The interface is DIFFERENT. They use a single button. It’s the lamest source of contention ever.

    Comment by Mark, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 5:49 pm

11. 

    It seems a bit silly that you are criticizing something you’ve never tried.

    Comment by tim, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 5:50 pm

12. 

    Down with software based volume control!

    Why do most laptops not have a hardware volume dial? The software often doesn’t respond fast enough, and the overlays often break in games.

    Ever turned your laptop on in a lecture or meeting and drastically try to turn down the volume before the start up sound goes? you can press mute, but it may not be processed in time.

    I use my headphones as an “audio suppression plug”, and even then windows will sometimes issue a system beep that bypasses the headphones.

    Comment by jimmy, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 7:16 pm

13. 

    I like how you go on and on about how much each piece of Apple hardware sucks, and then tell us how you’re planning to buy several of them.

    Comment by yesbutnobutyes, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 8:22 pm

14. 

    I love the minimalism, and totally disagree– though I do somewhat agree on the Mighty Mouse. It’s not Apple’s best work.

    I *hate* pretty much every non-Apple laptop due to all the clutter and ugly bells and whistles they try to hang on it. Special buttons named after buzzwordy features that I’ll never use, cluttery decorations, etc… really fugly.

    Comment by Adam Ierymenko, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 10:14 pm

15. 

    Apple says “If you’re coming from a right-click world, you can right-click with two fingers or configure a right-click area on the trackpad.” No arcane gestures needed – just click on the right side.

    Comment by Nobody, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 11:04 pm

16. 

    Clearly a lot of people share your sentiment, as seen in the above comments, but I would just like to pipe in my $0.02.

    1) iPod Volume Controls
    Rarely do I run into this problem. I ran into it quite frequently when I was younger and pirated most of my music from shitty sources like Limewire where files lacked ID3 tags and had obscure filenames. For the most part all of my music is pretty normalized (slightly over 8000 songs) and if you consider the fact that 99% of the time you’re not going to be facing the issue of one obscure extremely loud song coming on as you happen to be searching for another, the added benefit of one single interface to your device is entirely obvious.

    Also, with the iPhone/iTouch you can easily double-press the home button to bring up a dialog for your iPod while its playing, which lets you modify the volume, play, pause, etc… The volume toggle switches on the side also work to control the iPod’s volume while it’s in use. This is primarily directed at Larry above, because his comment suggested it was somewhat of a pain to get back to the iPod component. Double tap home button and make a quick adjustment, or once that double-tap activated dialog is up it also gives you quick access to the full iPod with one extra tap.

    2) The Mighty Mouse
    I too also feel that the mighty mouse is a great device. All around it fits nicely in the hand and works great! My one complaint is that the little nipple-ball scroller wheel gets full of finger gunk after a while and it’s real hard to remove it (you have to fully disassemble the mouse). Aside from that, I really like the mighty mice.

    3) The iPhone
    If you have a hard time with the iPhone, then I can’t help you. The iPhone is hands down the greatest phone out there. Every other PDA and Smartphone out there is an utter piece of shit. Most of them are scrambling to re-create the iPhones simplicity, efficiency and speed and their attempts are laughable. Apple is full steam ahead going after the enterprise market, and they will win. The iPhone will replace the Blackberry. Is a tap or two to access another menu really that much of a pain in the ass? My little sister can do everything on an iPhone faster than you or any other commenter on this blog could with any other mobile device, one handed, no debate.

    Comment by Michael Whalen, Wednesday, October 15, 2008 @ 12:52 am

17. 

    The preference for hardware laptop buttons is personal, and (clearly) not a preference all people share. I, for one, am intrigued by the idea of the glass trackpad. Macbooks have long supported a buttonless trackpad experience (one finger = left click; two fingers = right click). The new trackpad isn’t a huge leap beyond that. Besides, what if no one ever tried anything new? Conventions can be a rut.

    Apple designs fashion as much as they design function. It’s always a trade-off. Someone will always be dissatisfied. Yes, your “crappy old Motorola phone” got certain things done faster than iPhone, but Apple products are not always about less clicks; they’re about a better experience. I have more fun wasting time with iPhone clicks that I ever did doing anything with my crappy old Samsung.

    Comment by Jared, Wednesday, October 15, 2008 @ 2:10 pm

18. 

    I agree with you about the mighty mouse. It used touch sensors and if your left finger was resting on the mouse when you clicked then it decided to do a left click. I had to try to retrain my finger to lift it off the mouse entirely when trying to right click which felt unnatural and was tiring. I *did* love the cool squeeze button though.

    I also share your skepticism of the single pushable track pad. This means I’ll have to retrain my fingers again to only slide around with a certain pressure lest I accidentally click the whole pad down. I’ve never had a problem with Apple’s “2 finger click means right click” on the trackpad. In fact, I find I have to contort my fingers much less to do right click than when using a pad with 2 physical buttons. It does make middle click impossible which is a shame.

    But I disagree with you about the iPhone interface. I find it much easier to do things than with my old Sony Ericsson phone. I like that the dialing touchpad is much bigger than a normal phone’s physical buttons. And I find I have to hunt in menus much less than with my old phone, especially for call waiting and conference call manipulations. Those menus are particularly inspired in my opinion.

    Comment by David, Wednesday, October 15, 2008 @ 3:15 pm

19. 

    You can use iTunes to permanently adjust the volume level of songs that are too loud. Simply select the offending track, hit Cmd-I and go to the Options tab. There is a volume slider there which you can adjust to set it at a reasonable level. Next time you sync with your iPod, the tracks will be updated and you won’t have the “too loud” problem again.

    The newer iPod Touch also has separate volume controls on the side (as well as the iPhone).

    Comment by Mini Me, Wednesday, October 15, 2008 @ 6:13 pm

20. 

    Excellent post Brian!
    No approach should become a goal in itself.
    If some technology has a lot of features, maybe it might need a lot of direct controls.

    Comment by Sasha Dzeletovic, Friday, October 17, 2008 @ 2:42 am

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