On Saturday 29 December 2007 09:33, Bryen wrote: > On Sat, 2007-12-29 at 12:30 -0500, Mike McMullin wrote: > > ... > > > > I am aware of that Anders, but they are not stupid people, and > > revenue is revenue, even if it's just a license. > > No, but they do rely on the stupidity of their userbase. Their > revenue is based on telling their users what it is the users want, > not the other way around, which is how they got to be successful.
You could not be more wrong. Apple's ability to attract users and create usable and accessible user interfaces—something they do better than anyone else and have been doing for over two decades—is _extensive_ user testing. In fact, they were pioneers in really listening to (or, more precisely, watching) their users. They never let designers give users hints during their user testing. They watch and listen (users are instructed to verbalize their thought processes as they use the software or hardware being tested) but give no feedback. Then they use those results to improve and refine their interfaces. Apple's software is usually less feature-laden and some, especially highly technical users, tend to find it overly simplified, but one can definitely make the case that this is a better approach than Microsoft's "never say no to a feature request" practice. Randall Schulz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
