Usability Hell

The road to retinal implants and face chips that clean our teeth starts here with wearable computing - the iWatch and Google Glass.

Incorporating 1 or 2 assumptions, here is the head to head:

Fixing a Problem

Why do we need wearable computing?

Personally, I listen to Podcasts & Music for several hours a day - often whilst walking, cycling or taking public transport around a city. I may take my phone out of my pocket to choose content to listen to, write a message, check messages, skip an ad, rewind something, look at a map (multiple times if I’m navigating somewhere) 50 or more times a day.

Each time I do I almost drop it, the earphone cable gets tangled, I have to unlock it, maybe type a code; in short it’s a total usability mess - and means you’re not paying attention to your situation (dangerous if driving or cycling - or walking on a pavement in most of Asia).

Here’s a look at some use cases…

Visibility

Glass is always there - iWatch can only be seen if you turn your wrist (but even that is far better than getting your phone out and unlocking it).

Whether ‘always on’ visibility is good or bad depends on your personality - and specific use.

Glass: 8

iWatch: 8

Control: Touch vs Voice

Unless Apple implement Knight Rider style Siri on the iWatch (which they might), here it’s touch vs voice. You can obviously do a lot more with touch, and you’re not irritating everyone around you, letting them know your private business, or susceptible to background noise interference.

Voice is also still in its infancy, you can do a lot less with it, less effectively.  Of course if you are driving or cycling or doing sport (Snowboarding anyone!)…. voice is great. But you could probably use an iWatch quite comfortably there too.

iWatch will have a small screen though so what it can do will be relatively limited.

Unless you’re driving - touch wins here.

Glass: 5

iWatch: 9

Display

iWatch may, for example, have a 1/3 curved retina display in it - that would give it a resolution of (1136/3 = 284 x 640). Compared to 640 x 360 of Google Glass.

Strangely it seems you can fit far less on a Glass screen (I’ve never used one personally).

It’s hard to say here without using either but they may be roughly equivalent, and probably quite small & restricted for at least a few years.

Glass: 5

iWatch: 5

Quantified Self

Awful phrase, but recording aspects of our everyday life is another exciting new area both these devices enable.

Some level of this is already available with smartphones - some including external hardware - such as products like Nike Plus or Fit Bit - or apps like Run Keeper which track runs or bike rides, telling you distance and estimating calories burned. 

Having something constantly in contact with your body (the Nike Fuelband already does this) - gives you even more activity data.

If you keep either device on at all times - the possibilities here are very exciting - and equally good for either device

iWatch: 8

Glass: 8

Use Cases - Face Off

(I have scored the winner 5 points in each category)

Choose music / podcast: iWatch should make it quick and easy to browse and select content with its touch interface. iW: 5

Play / Pause / Skip: Skip a track, forward past an ad, go back 30 seconds in an audiobook. iWatch is a comfortable winner here - even if these voice commands were available I’d much rather press something. iW: 5

Adjust Volume: Assuming you have earphones in connected directly to phone. Should be very easy to change on iWatch - glass, even if the voice command exists, no idea how they’d make that work half as well. iW: 5

Answer Call: Unless you always have earphones with a mic in - Glass wins here as it doubles as a bluetooth headset (battery allowing). GG: 5

Maps: iWatch should make looking up places on the map easier with touch - though actual navigation will be easier if it’s always visible. Turn by turn + voice in a car is a clear winner for GG, but overall - tie GG: 5 / iW: 5

Notifications: Whether you want notifications in your face 24/7 or not is a personal thing. I’d prefer to choose to look at a watch rather than be told in my eye (though I have very few notifications on in any case). Another tie GG: 5 / iW: 5

Recording Video / Photos: iWatch may have a front facing camera - making it good for calls. Glass has a camera that sees what you see. The latter will be far more useful, allowing you to capture moments you’d miss with a camera (I never use my iPhone front facing camera). Just avoid wearing it in the shower. GG: 5

Results

Glass: 46

iWatch: 55

Conclusion

It partially comes down to which eco system you’re committed to. If you’ve got an iPhone getting Glass will be hard - and iWatch probably wont work (at least fully) with any other phone.

Then it’s down to whether you prefer voice or touch. Touch gives you way more control, and is a lot more versatile, even on a small screen. I can see it being far more useful day to day than Glass.

The clear winner is iWatch.

Caveat: The main problem with Glass is its reliance on voice control - which isn’t appropriate for most situations. However, this is also a strength in some specific use cases, such as driving, cycling or various hands free industrial uses.

In those cases iWatch will already be an improvement & Glass with voice control will be revolutionary.

Either way this will be a fascinating fight, bring on WWDC.

(photo from The Verge)

I’ve no idea why everyone is being so negative about the prospects for an iWatch.

Every day I probably get my iPhone 5 out of my pocket 50 or more times - each time the earphone cable gets tangled, I nearly drop it, have to spin it round, unlock it, maybe type a lock code, then find the right app.

This is slightly less of an issue if you use an earphone cable with volume  & a play/stop button (such as the awful shipped Apple earphones). But often that’s not an option with high end earphones.

75% of the time its for a trivial task.

Use Cases

Off the top of my head, an iWatch would be great for these use cases - and easily worth it for any 3:

• Selecting a new tune or podcast to listen to.
• Pause/Play audio.
• Change volume.
• Glance at a map while walking/driving/cycling.
• Glance at a message or reminder.
• Forward a podcast past an advert.

No One Wears a Watch

I keep hearing this as a reason why an iWatch is a bad idea. There’s some proper morons out there.

The iWatch will be a remote control for your phone - it’s not there to just tell the time.

The current situation of constantly taking out your phone is an awful user experience. If I can take my phone out 75% less during the day, it’s not only better - it’s safer.

The Status Quo is Broken 

Fiddling with a phone while driving, cycling or walking and not looking where you’re going = not ideal. A wrist mounted display is far quicker here.

Dropping it removing it from your pocket (how many times have we done that!), or getting it stolen from your hand while using it, or out of your pocket (happened to me) - all real problems.

Wearable is the future…

If Apple have put as many resources behind the iWatch as some say, and based on their record of designing stunning objects, I have no doubt this thing is going to be extremely useful to anyone who uses their phone heavily.

Some people just have no vision.

How it will stack up against the also exciting Google Glass when it’s released to consumers in 2014 will also be interesting to see. I think iGlass is inevitable within the next 5 years….

…and hey, having the time on your wrist is also quite useful…

I just can’t trust the notes app with important data anymore.

Notes syncing between MacOS & iOS over iCloud was always glitchy, and IT STILL IS.

The above happened yesterday, one note was duplicated 10 times for no apparent reason. Notes are also lost regularly.

Come on Apple this isn’t good enough, it’s also not rocket science.

Lets hope Mr Ive kicks some butts & sorts this out (even if it is more a technical than design issue, someone needs to acknowledge & fix this).

While you’re at it how about killing the skeumorphism yellow pad and comic sans?!

Who the f*** designed Google Glass?

The frames look like they’re off the glasses my 90 year old gran used to wear (with those transition lenses for extra ugly).

I thought Google got design now? Apparently it’s only their iOS team.

When is Apple Glass coming?

Apple’s perfect right? Well, not quite….

Magsafe 2

Aaaaarrrghnnnnnneeeeeemmmmp.

I guess Jony Ive doesn’t use his laptop in bed, or ever rest it on his lap. Well a lot of us do - and its virtually impossible without the power cord coming out - even spawning additional plugs to stop it falling out like the Mag Stay:

http://www.thoughtout.biz/products/MagStay-PRO.html

This is a shocking design flaw. It was a problem with Magsafe 1 but has been made worse by a seeminly weaker magnetic connection, and going back to the T connector, which places the wire at right angles to the laptop.

Not auto-updating iOS Apps

WHY? I don’t even have that many apps, and I have to manually click ‘update’ every day at least once.

I can see no reason for this (surely not bandwidth?).

If you’re going to put an app on everyone’s device (rather than a website), your life is already a lot harder as a developer. Ensuring everyone has the latest version of the app automatically helps users, developers - everyone. At least give us the option to auto-update, or allow devs to force updates.

iPhone lock screen (play/pause, back, forward)

If your phone is locked & you’re playing music, the buttons are way too close together. Constantly I click forward or back on a track by accident, instead of play/pause, and have for years. There’s space - just move the buttons further apart.

Turn off Cell, Keep WiFi on

Every night for the past 4 years I have put my phone on flight mode, then gone into wifi and re-enabled it - because you can’t turn the cell off - and keep wifi on (which I might like to do before I go to sleep, but not get woken by the cell).

It’s a constant, small irritation.

iTunes

iTunes is the dirty, smelly, unshaven dude of MacOS - sitting in the corner, resplendent in a thigh high pile of his own faeces. Only flies love him.

The new iTunes 11 has some nice elements - but you know what they say about polishing a turd. It’s yet more crap, layered on top of code that’s clearly ancient (just try right clicking on a song - then left clicking). And what’s with the tiny display?

Start again with a totally new app - maybe run it parallel to iTunes for a couple of years and hey - how about subscription audio?

Lack of Cases

My Bauhaus inspired MacBook Air, has a wetsuit case. WTF. What case does Jony Ive use on his laptop?

How many people have a cheap novelty case on their iPhone - partly because there’s no gorgeous Apple option?

I’ve never understood this - a good case is an integral, daily part of the user experience. You started with the iPad case, finish the job.

AppleTV Apps

Samsung TV’s have, here in the UK anyway, a BBC iPlayer App, Channel 4 and ITV (free to air channels - with iOS apps already). The AppleTV has virtually no useful apps. What about games?

If Apple are working on this area - why not move that forward now, it’s a no brainer.

AppleTV ALWAYS drops out

Enough said - it’s never been reliable to me. Neither has AirPlay/AirTunes - always dropping out or not being discoverable at all, on various networks. Very un-Apple.

Skeuomorphism

I’ve written about Skeumorphism before

Forstall is gone, Ive is in charge - hopefully this is gone for good

iCloud

Why can’t I backup / sync my Mac with iCloud? (like Dropbox)? Why can’t I share files on it? It seems like Apple did a lot of boring stuff with iCloud, without any of the cool stuff. It still feels glitchy, when I restore my phone for example, it suggests 5 email addresses for each service I have to log into - of other people?!

The notes App is STILL losing notes. I sync notes across MacOS & my iPhone 5.

Before iOS 6 it lost synched notes *all the time* - which can be serious. It improved a lot but this still has a bug and has lost 2 notes over the last 2 days. This isn’t rocket science Apple - why do you keep screwing this up?

Keys

Is it alt, option or some unmemorable symbol ⌥ (that’s not even on the key). Is it the Apple key (where’s the Apple symbol gone?) or the command key or the other weird squiggle key?

How many frikking names do you need for each key? Why have a symbol for each but only put one on the command key?

Why isn’t there a delete key (in PC parlance - there is only a backspace key). This makes text editing WAY more efficient - I have used a key remapping program to do this to my | key (but this is not without issues).

‘Right’ Clicking

There is no good way to right click (or control click) on a Mac Trackpad. Having used a Mac as my only machine for 6 months, Windows is still better at this.

Two finger tapping is a little slower (I find fractionally staggering the impact of both fingers helps reliability but slows things down) - and doesn’t always work. You can map it to the right side of the track pad but that’s a long way over and not clearly marked in either a visual or tactile way.

I just don’t trust right click on Macs, often doing it multiple times if I get no response.

Maximizing windows

Another area that’s better in Windows. Maximize fills the whole screen area (without going full screen). No brainer, copy it from Windows (like you did with resizing windows from any corner).

No 3G/4G in laptops

Windows laptops have had sim card slots in for 5+ years now. I have to think this is coming but having a cheap plasticy dongle hanging out of my Air is gross; super inelegant - and it wont even fit in when the magsafe 2 power is in.

Podcasting iOS App

It took Apple years to come up with an app on iOS that allowed you to download podcasts directly. When it came out - it was awful, didn’t work on iPhone 4, crashed all the time and was full of ridiculous skeuomorphism. A tiny codeshop created Downcast - which was available years earlier and kills it - Bizarre.

iOS Stagnation

It looks basically the same as when it launched in 2007. A grid of icons. Others, specially Windows phone are doing a lot of interesting stuff with live tiles.

Now Ive has taken over all human interface design at apple, I expect to see some innovation.

oh did I say 11? Sorry they kept coming…

Update 29 Oct - 2 weeks after writing this (Oct 15 2012), Apple do the two things I recommend in this post - Fire Forstall & put Jony Ive in charge of all ‘Human Interface’ design: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20132843

————-

I use an iPhone 5 & MacBook Air - both devices which I am very happy with.

However, Apple has a large and growing problem. Incompetence and lack of vision in iOS - means it is being overtaken by Android and Windows Phone.

Scott Forstall, Apple’s head of iOS software, should be fired, not because of his questionable taste in shirts, but because this is his fault.

Problems with iOS

Total lack of innovation

When iPhone launched, it felt new, it lead the pack in innovation & execution. But it feels like it’s virtually stood still while the competition overtakes it. Case in point - last month iOS 6 launched with a lot of new minor features (panorama, call back reminders etc) - but nothing big or innovative.

Windows phone, in contrast, with its active tiles, is looking more modern & more interesting. It looks active, iOS looks like a dull grid of icons. Why can’t I see the weather without having to load the app in iOS, for example?

Skeumorphism

“An object or feature which imitates the design of a similar artefact in another material.”

Apparently there is a rift at Apple between Forestall & Jony Ive, the industrial designer who in league with Jobs transformed Apple from a company on the verge of bankruptcy to the most valuable company in the world.

Forestall loves Skeumorphism, Ive hates it - and for good reason.

Many iOS apps, such as notes, diary, podcasting & find my friends, use system resources to do things such as, show a reel to reel tape player playing a podcast, or have a stitched leather effect.

Form should follow function. At best this is a ridiculous gimmick, at worst it makes apps more confusing, bloated, cluttered & slow.

Very un-apple.

Podcasting App

Android has had ‘download directly to device’ podcasting for years. It took apple until 2011 to copy this functionality. Even then, their Podcasts app was unusably slow & crashy on my iPhone 4 at the time (only 1 generation old). 

In contrast, many 3rd party apps have been doing this better for years, eg Downcast. I wasn’t aware of these apps & thought you had to sync with iTunes for many years (I’m unlikely to be the only one).

Even with an iPhone 5, Downcast is comfortably better.

Basic iOS Usability Failings

iOS has had many minor but irritating usability flaws since launch. For example…

At least once a day, I want to turn my cell off - but leave WiFi on (eg before I go to sleep). To do this I have to first put the phone in flight mode, then go into WiFi and switch it back on.

When playing music or podcast while locked the forward/back buttons are so close to play/pause you often press the wrong one.

The keyboard is awful. Every time I write anything, I have to re-read then re-write it. On Symbian almost 10 years ago I was tracing letters with my finger (P800/P900) in a much more reliable, accurate way. Android has many input options, several of which seem more reliable.

iOS Notes syncing

I lost several important pieces of information that I noted on my iPhone - after setting iCloud up to sync notes between MacOS & iOS. This is BASIC stuff, and inexcusable in 2012 when you have Apple’s resources. I have heard other people talk about the same issues.

(this appears to have been fixed with iSO 6).

iOS 6 Maps

Much has been written about the problems with iOS 6 maps. I must say the application itself is well executed.

However, many people, me included, have had problems finding places. Addresses are marked in the wrong place in the street, businesses can’t be found, transit information is missing (I used Google Maps to find London busses daily).

Ultimately this is the right move for Apple, but they should have ensured Google Maps was available to users in parallel, or started their own maps project sooner.

Unlike antenna-gate, this is a real problem, and many people may actually decide not to buy an iPhone until this is fixed. 

Lack of iOS ‘Spotify’ style streaming music app

It’s unclear how central Forestall might be in the lack of this, but it seems bizarre Apple is standing still with iTunes & downloading music manually to devices - instead of streaming, caching & subscription.

——-

Responsibility for most, if not ALL these problems lies with Scott Forstall.

Many of them have been festering for years. For Apple to stay innovative they need a visionary who doesn’t make continuous mistakes. Forestall isn’t a visionary - and keeps making mistakes.

For this he must be fired & Jony Ive should oversee all design, software and hardware. iOS could benefit hugely from his minimalist, functional design ethos.

(Full Disclosure, I own shares in Apple)

I love the Olympics - so it pains me that London2012 ticketing is the worst usability experience I have ever had.

Breathtakingly slow & inefficient. Frustrating & inept to levels that make it seem like the whole thing is a joke.

But hey - no big deal; it’s only the Olympics.

*****

I have attempted to buy several tickets since the Olympics started - securing one for the Beach Volleyball after hours of trying.

Layer upon layer of frustration, lack of clarity at every stage, and the egregiously flawed processes & time they waste shows a complete lack of care and oversight for UX.

I can’t believe ANY usability testing happened here, or any attempt to make this an easy process. It feels like a desperate hack, using multiple badly connected systems.

Technical Illiteracy at the Top

The days where our politicians regulate the Internet without understanding it, or major events are organised by a room full of technically illiterate people, should be over.

Ticketing is a VITAL part of the Olympics. LOCOG should have had a senior person overviewing ticketing & online that understands the Web, UX & Usability - and ensured the ticketing process wasn’t an afterthought & awful hack.

All the senior team should have been forced to buy their tickets through the site - and they would have seen the problems before the site went live.

In fact it should have been architected properly to begin with.

Clearly it wasn’t. In 2012 this is a huge huge FAIL.

Process + Failures

Buy Tickets

Exciting - which tickets can I get?

Wait - where do I click? 

Lets try ‘How to purchase tickets’

It’s asking me to sign up & sign in. 

so…

Signup

It pains me how apparently NO ONE knows a secure password is about length - not including letters and numbers (or symbols) - which makes them far harder to remember. Excellent XKCD cartoon on this:

http://www.explainxkcd.com/2011/08/10/password-strength/

So I sign in.

Site looks the same. Back to ‘How to purchase tickets’ - no links or help with searching.

Turns out you buy tickets by clicking ‘Search Events’ - usability testing this for a couple of hours would have revealed this.

Great - plain sailing now. HELL no. Welcome to my friend PAIN? Have you met?

I’m happy to go to any event - show me what’s available.

No.

You have to search EVERY event INDIVIDUALLY.

Great then you will have a list of tickets available? Not even close.

A-HAHAHAHAHA.

Seriously I couldn’t have invented something this breathtakingly un-intuitive, frustrating, time wasting and just rotten to the core - if I tried.

Now it will show you either nothing, or a few events that MIGHT have tickets available. ie - the London2012 site doesn’t actually know what tickets are available to their own games. It appears Ticket Master does - and there is some kind of elderly can’t be assed (can’t be assed is British slang = can’t be bothered) data connection between the two that updates when it’s not eating donuts.

This page can also show you some items with this:

Ooo Athletics. Oh no - ‘Currently Unavailable’ on the right. WHY did this even come up?

Sometimes you get this - if you’re ‘lucky’:

So you click ‘Select’ and hope.

You might then get this:

AGAIN, why even show that event?

Also, what an AWFUL message. Pure, blue blood FAIL.

You get the impression the London2012 site doesn’t have a clue what’s going on most of the time - this message confirms it & baffles users.

This came up at lunch time - but they might be ‘completing our nightly maintenance’. This is SO HALF ASSED it’s almost funny.

I did this on 31 July - why is a message saying tickets go on sale on 15 June still shown?

THIS IS PATHETIC, shoddy, rushed looking, inadequate coding & UX - for the most important sporting event on earth.

Or you might get this:

Now it lets you select from a drop down which ticket you want. Remember - you’ve no idea what is actually available.

‘Add to shopping list’

Then ‘proceed to delivery and payment’. WHY am I doing this if we don’t know if there are actually tickets available?

This is BASIC BASIC stuff. When online would you ever experience this? Can you imagine ordering something on Amazon only to be told after going through payment etc etc - ‘oh that’s not available’.

It also lets you have up to ‘four sessions’ - and often comes up with a message something like ‘you have already applied for this ticket’. I still don’t understand what the sessions are or how they work. There are also seemingly arbitrary limits to how many tickets you can buy (more likely FAIL to buy) for one event.

I am a web developer & I don’t get it. What chance would your granny have??

Here’s a funny message when your VERY short session limit runs out:

“We want to ensure that tickets are available to as many people as possible”. 

Really, is that why you make it virtually impossible to buy them? Seriously?

*****

OK back to the living hell that is buying tickets.

At every stage here you can receive a message saying tickets unavailable remember.

Then you’re asked to wait for ‘upto x minutes’. This can be 1, 2 or 3 in my experience. (EDIT it said 15, but lasted a good 25 last night - only to fail):

I presume this is when they prime the carrier pigeon that flys over to the Ticket Master office to see what’s actually available.

No wait - that would work better than this.

This worked once for me - and failed maybe 50 times, or more - I’ve lost count (and wasted countless hours of my time).

Of course there’s CAPTCHAs just to frustrate you that bit more.

Why is this Bad?

• It wastes countless hours of people’s time (probably millions of hours).
• It will confuse many people due to complete lack of usability.
• Tickets may go unsold - specially ones made available at the last minute.
• It makes London & The Olympics look incompetent.
• It’s 2012, this isn’t good enough for a local band let alone the greatest show on earth!

What to Improve

• Plan a simple, fast, intuitive, responsive; usable ticketing system from the start.
• Test, test, test usability.
• Obvious ‘Buy Tickets’ button (<BASIC stuff).
• Easily browse available tickets.
• Only show events with tickets available.
• Email alerts when new tickets released during games.
• Have waiting lists for tickets.
• Show tickets available - sorted by price (or under a certain price - suggestion Mark Baker).
• Have an infrastructure where the website knows what tickets are available.
• Have a senior member of the Organising Committee who understands, owns & enforces UX/Usability for all websites, especially ticketing.

As I say, I love the Olymipcs & am looking forward to attending - everything else seems to be running smoothly & I wish them all well.

But Rio - learn these lessons.

Just let me f****** unsubscribe already….

Wrong: “If you think you might like to unsubscribe from our awesome emails, which incidentally are like totally life changing and shit what you should think about doing at some point - but only if you’re sure - is unsubscribing by clicking on this next bit click here. BTW my moms address is: 1 who gives a frak street, San Jose, California 696969”

Right: “Unsubscribe”

9. About.me, About time you fix it

WHY can’t you just have 1 word ‘Unsubscribe’ & why grey on grey in tiny font?

8. Gumtree

Another waffle + click here offender

7. Dropbox

Tiny text, waffle, grey on white low constrast, with the all too familiar ‘click here’ text. It’s 2012 people.

What like if you write it small & low contrast enough people will forget they want to unsubscribe?

6. Vimeo, Vime-ohhhhh FFS

Again, the usual tiny text containing totally un-necessary waffle and the timeless ‘click here’:

So I ‘click here’ (srsly) - and am shown the below. At which point I have to go and work out which email address (I have a few) the email was sent to. WHY - JUST WHY??? Because you want to waste another 2 minutes of my time?

Seriously that’s the ONLY reason I can think of.

5. Spotify, SpotiFAIL

I’ve barely ever used Spofity - so when they started sending me unsolicited emails I was a bit shocked - and irritated.

So they start with the usual bullshit grey on grey ‘change your settings’ crap here

A:

So it makes me login, because they don’t care about the fact I’m busy.

B:

I hardly ever user it - of course I can’t remember my email. But wait - do they want email (as it says highlighted in italics in the text) - or username (which is in the error message).

I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO WORK THIS SHIT OUT JUST TO STOP BEING SPAMMED!

4. EasyJet, HardJet

(saucy)

Did their legal department tell them to put the below time-wastingly offensive waffle on their emails? Almost certainly.

Should your legal department be running your company? NO

Would it be possible to come up with much shorter more concise text & to provide an easy to see Unsubscribe link? YES.

3. Google+, Google-

More waffle. Where’s my ‘Unsubscribe’ link bitch? You’re not going to persuade anyone by using such needy language “pweese don’t unsubscribe, we only send you occasional updates”. I don’t have time for this.

Then there’s the dread of having to “Change what email Google+ sends you”. This often translates to x minutes of pissing around….

….which it did. I get presented with this:

Obviously I’m logged into Google with a different account. I should not have to login to do this - what a colossal waste of my time. This just shows a lack of respect.

2. Foursquare

As well as probably never being able to find a business model that will even return money to investors (that buyout is taking a LONG time FB/Google) - Foursquare also spectacularly fail at letting me unsubscribe from email alerts that I never asked for:

A:

Wow now THAT is low contrast text. Apparently Foursquare hate anyone without perfect vision (as well as making money).

Did I just waste 3 seconds of my life reading some bullshit about an adorable puppy. Yes I did. Also the ‘Settings Page’ link is underlined, but it’s also in the almost impossible to read grey on grey. Again making it almost impossible to read won’t stop people unsubscribing - it will just piss them off!

Also it says ‘settings’ not ‘Unsubscribe’ - you get the feeling this will be a nightmare…..

B:

Obviously I can’t frikking remember my Foursquare login - who can - it’s an app on my phone - reset it is. Which then needs more fannying about on the phone.

Once I’m logged in - more time wasting.

C:

NEIN, NEIN, NEIN, NEIN, NEIN.

You’re confusing me with someone that gives a shit about this granular level of control. I don’t - most people won’t - just let me unsubscribe from your emails in one click for the sake of my sanity.

1. Apple

As well as being the biggest company in the world - they’re the no 1 email fucktards. I have tried to unsubscribe from their iTunes sales email about 30 times over at least 2 years, I still get the emails. I can’t just change the email address because it’s associated with my iTunes login & need some of the emails.

Here’s a look at some other email gibberish form them (I love a lot of what Apple do - but not this):

I can’t believe Steve Jobs was aware of the above text at the bottom of an Apple email. It contains lines like “For more detailed information on the Apple Online Store Terms & Conditions click here”

That’s not even legal speak - it’s just pointless waffle. “Full Terms & Conditions”. Done. I’m sure there’s no good reason for most of that text being there - and I’m sure almost no one clicks the links (except searching for Unsubscribe).

Here’s another classic:

10 DAYS. (actually it’s never worked for me - not in 10 days, not in 10 months).

Does clicking this link produce a letter that is posted to a separate Apple office in China where a worker has to go through a filing cabinet and remove my email address shortly before throwing themselves out of the window?

WTF. The F*** Y** factor is breathtaking.

The Champ: Twitter do it RIGHT

Now yes this is a bit more waffly than it needs to be, and low contrast - however they do 2 things right. The link is ‘unsubscribe’ - and it doesn’t need you to login.

One click, unsubscribed in 2 seconds. Well done Twitter - it’s the little things….

If you’re like I was, you use about 20% of your iPhone / Android apps, 80% of the time (Pareto Principle). (and probably 5% 70% of the time).

I recently deleted all the apps I never use. I was ruthless (you can always re-install them - or use the mobile website instead).

If you sort apps by size in iTunes - some are surprisingly large.

I’m now down to 30 apps - most of them are on the home screen + a page 2.

I’ve saved myself a minute or two per day of fannying about trying to find apps. I’ve also freed up hundreds of MB of space, and my phone is faster too.

It’s also mentally freeing; less is more. 

A tidy phone = a tidy mind.

I suggest you do the same; it makes your phone way more usable.

The new Path iOS app seems to have got almost universal acclaim - and it is a nicely designed iOS app. Hats off to anyone with the guts to try a social network at this point.

However, they’ve made several major strategic mistakes….

iOS Only Approach = Insanity

If they had developed a responsive website (1 website that adapts to different devices/resolutions) instead of iOS app, they would have had all these benefits, much quicker:

Runs Everywhere

A responsive website runs on any device, desktop, tablet, phone. The above page is what I get when I click on a path email notification. Seriously.

iOS has maybe ~200m users? The web has ~2billion (including all iOS devices).

Even among people with an iOS device (including me) - why if I’m sat in front of my computer would i want to use my phone to access Path? (hint, I wouldn’t).

More work for way less product.

[Edit they now have Android app - but everything in post remains true]

Speed of Development & Deployment - UnLean

Build, Measure, Learn. The lean startup mantra we’re all aiming to implement at our startups is heavily disrupted by iOS. Not only by being harder, slower & more expensive to develop, but the app store is a huge road block slowing that learning process to a crawl. Deployment takes days and weeks, forget continuous deployment.

Even if there were no app store approval process, updates require users to download every update. Even if that process were automatic, which it isn’t, the bandwidth required to download multiple code changes per day would be horrendous for users & for the startup. You also have the nightmare of many (even thousands) of software versions out there to support.

So Path learn & iterate way more slowly. The biggest advantage of a startup is agility and rapid ability to iterate; iOS kills this. You get some competition who isn’t hamstrung in this way & you’re screwed.

You are also at risk of being rejected by the app store approval process at any time. This alone puts the fate of your business in Apple’s hand & is a constant threat.

If path were web only from the start they would be several years ahead of where they are today.

Cost

To just reach Android, iOS & desktop web - is 3x the work, 3x the code base & at least 3 times the cost.

Add in Blackberry & Windows Phone and its 5x. Who knows what devices we’ll be using in a few years.

You then have multiple incompatible platforms to manage, with multiple dev teams. $2.5m of venture funding only buys you an iOS app after all this time. Thats a lot of effort for a single platform.

Instead of duplicating the exact same functionality across 2/3/4 platforms - Path could be moving forward & learning 2/3/4 times faster. Or running 2/3/4 times more efficiently.

Ease of Development

HTML & CSS are universal standards. The browser is the ultimate, ultra fast platform for running apps now. It’s the dream Java never lived up to. Web skills are everywhere.

Trading these in for esoteric development languages, in uber high demand, with very few truly world class coders, puts you at a huge disadvantage.

It is also a lot of work to optimise iOS & get the most out of it (I’m not an expert in iOS development but this is what I hear, for example in the recent Kevin Rose interview on This Week in Startups). Way more best practice & help exists with the web, along with frameworks & libraries like JQuery & JQuery mobile.

Disadvantages of web

Hardware integration - you can do most things through the web you can do natively now, eg location. You could recreate path in HTML fairly easily (certainly the important bits).

App Store - it’s nice to be in the app store - but not worth all this pain.

By developing on iOS you’re trading, perhaps, 1 or 2 cosmetic ‘nice to have’ things most people barely notice - for fundamental, business threatening, viability threatening disadvantages.

Limiting Friends

Path users are limited to 150 friends.

There are 2 tangled issues here.

1. Limiting friends for ‘intimacy’

2. Being a more trusted platform (vis a vis privacy) than Facebook.

Focusing on privacy from the beginning, and building trust can make Path the trusted alternative to Facebook.

Having a limit on friends has nothing to do with privacy & trust. This arbitrary limit is just an inconvenience for users - what is the benefit to them?

Many people would hit the 150 limit then spend lots of time they don’t have figuring out who to unfriend. There’s nothing stopping people self-imposing this limit.

The ONLY use case I’ve heard for a small, ultra private/limited social network is ‘to share kiddy photos’. That takes you from 2bn+ potential users to a few million - and maybe guarantees you niche obscurity. Why not just call it ‘kids photo net’ and be more honest - it’s a tiny niche market.

Even that is a red herring. A platform that people trust, which allowed more private areas for an inner circle, is the issue here. The 150 limit is irrelevant.

You’re also killing the network effect. A good % of people, maybe most, maybe almost all, don’t want a friend limits. So many will never join path - which will do a great job of stopping it hitting a tipping point (along with iOS only).

It’s like they’ve set it up to fail deliberately.

Business Model

For a social network to make good money, like Facebook, you need huge, long term penetration. Path won’t get this while it has the above problems.

In it’s current form generating solid profits seems a very long way off.

Summary

To get some debatable ‘better device integration’ - in exchange for business threatening disadvantages is crazy.

How Path can beat Facebook

Path may say they aren’t trying to beat Facebook. The problem is Facebook is their only real competitor, they are fighting them whether they want to or not.

Their biggest barrier currently is themselves, they have their foot on the accelerator and the hand break on.

Here’s how they win…

1. Abandon iOS, go fully responsive web
Cheaper, future proof, unlimited iteration, runs on *everything* right now. Do way more with way less.

2. Remove 150 limit
A lot of people are looking for an alternative to Facebook. There isn’t one (Google+ is way different). Path could be it. It could change the world. Most people don’t want a 150 limit.