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May 29, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Amoeba records listening station
Aynne Valencia submits a picture from San Francisco:
This user interface fouls San Francisco.
Do you know what is playing?
Do you know how to forward to the next song?
Do you know what the heck is going on here?
Noooo..
Neither do I
Neither did any of the kids I polled at the listening station.
This is not an interface - it is an acid trip.
I am at Ameoba almost every Saturday and this is driving me mad!
I am almost to the point where I would volunteer to fix this mess.
I'd have to play with it myself, but it looks possible to use. It definitly does not look user friendly, though. Without instructions or a better UI, it's broken.
Well right on looking at it it seems that the song 'desire' is being played. Since you cut off the bottom and right sides of the screen, I couldn't tell you the answer to your other question. Secondly, is this a touch screen or do you use a keyboard/mouse? The Picture seems kinda broken to me.
It's broken for a number of reasons. They just ripped off the Winamp 2.XX interface (notice the lack of a balance slider and the EQ/PL buttons), covered it with a slapdash skin and then pasted the whole mess into a poorly designed selection menu.
Nullsoft should sue.
> Do you know how to forward to the next song?
The part marked 'For next selection press enter" is a give away for me.
I swear half the stuff on Broken these days reflects more about the state of mind of those who posts it.
After staring at that... thing for about five minutes, I can now tell you what song is playing... I think.
Isn't it kinda obvious what is playing? Not only does it scroll across the Winamp window, but it is also hi-lighted in green on the side playlist, The whole thing does look very overwhelming though.
Even though this interface CAN be figured out if you stare at it for a while, it is broken because:
1. It is not easy to figure out, quickly, for most people.
2. It is cluttered with lots of different information that is presented in strange ways.
3. It's overwhelming.
4. It hurts your eyes. Look at the colors. We have a bright blue background with some kind of fractals in it, a strange image covering the entire spectrum at the top, and text & controls in a range of painful colors such as... well... Burning White, Glowing Yellow and Spastic Green.
This thing needs to be rehauled by someone who will actually test it after it is made...
Based only on its extreme similarity to Nullsoft Winamp and/or XMMS (A UNIX/Linux clone of Winamp), I would propose:
A. That the song currently playing is Desire by Ryan Adams.
B. That the next song to play will be Cry on Demand by Ryan Adams.
C. That pressing B will move you ahead to the next song.
D. That pressing Z will move you back to the previous song
E. That pressing R will foul the whole thing up by engaging shuffle play.
None of this is to say that the interface isn't broken.
This is indeed a mess.
However, unlike most TIB posts, which tend to be about poorly delivered critical communications, this reflects a nonessential, optional communication - one that provides extra information to consumers on an optional, free-of-charge basis.
Granted, it's difficult to use. But it is unlikely to:
A) provide you with wrong information
B) leave you more confused about the contents of an album than when you started.
No matter how kludgy, it will certainly give you that one bit of info you need that you can't get elsewhere in the store - some idea of what an album sounds like.
It's optional and it's free. If you don't like it, don't use it, and join all the other shoppers who are buying albums based on cover art. Geez.
"I swear half the stuff on Broken these days reflects more about the state of mind of those who posts it."
YES! That's the POINT.
An interface should not force constraints on the user in terms of previous experience, training or familiarity with the technology or software.
Such as, say, knowing what WinAmp is.
"Acid trip?!? what is an acid trip?"
You're kidding, right? You're showing your age kiddie... ;-)
Whitewash it, list the information in the middle rather than scrambling it, and have a help pane/button that shows all key shortcuts, and this would be slightly less broken. But it would be a whole lot easier to just throw it away.
You just need to read it carefully!!! I was able to read it and the some was by Ryan Adams, and the song was called "Desire"!
NOT BROKEN!
Do you know what is playing?
Yup, Desire by Ryan Adams, off the album Demolition
Do you know how to forward to the next song?
Yup, press ENTER. I figured that out from the incredibly difficult instruction that says "NEXT SELECTION Press ENTER" as a prominent part of the first line of the interface.
Do you know what the heck is going on here?
Yup, they're using a kluged version of a hideously bad interface instead of investing in a decent solution.
I'm not going to say it's not broken, because besides being fugly it is complicated and counterintuitive, but it's also sadly typical of what a lot of people are used to using--so for a lot of them it will at least work.
That still doesn't mean it's not broken.
So if I'm understanding correctly, you go to Amoeba every Saturday, are somehow drawn to the listening station (which is playing a four-year-old collection of Ryan Adams demos) which you can't figure out, and walk away angry.
Two main solutions to this complaint:
a) If you can't understand the interface, don't use the listening station. (The things are useless, anyway, IMHO; standing still with headphones just doesn't seem like a good context for music.)
b) Be lucky that you even live near an Amoeba. I live on the opposite side of the country and would kill to live near an Amoeba. Stop taking your proximity to a wonderful record store for granted.
(if you sent this when "Demolition" was a current release, then I sincerely hope you have either figured out the machine or given up.)
Ah, Winamp. One of those programs used by people who enjoy digital self-abuse, like linux.
I think the point here is that when you are at this machine trying to check out the tracks on the CD you're holding (it looks to have a UPC scanner) you want the following:
A song list
Current song
price
album art (optional)
very clear next/previous buttons.
The fact that this interface includes the old blue DOS fields show that it was hastily installed and modded for the purpose, possibly by a colorblind acid user.
Perhaps the poster needs to lay off the Purple Owsley for a while.
It looks perfectly intelligible to me.
Aesthetically displeasing to me but I'm not the target demographic.
"B. That the next song to play will be Cry on Demand by Ryan Adams."
-Glenn Lasher
I would have said NMS "Imperial Letters of Protection" was the next selection and you select the next album and then press enter.
Why is there a Scan: UPC symbol on the page?
Broken
Here is how I am pretty sure it works:
The next song to play will be "Cry on Demand" by Ryan Adams, the next "selection" or album to play will be NMS "Imperial Letters of Protection". To chose a diffrent album either select it(I can't see how from what is included in the photo) and then press enter ...OR... scan the UPC of the album you want to hear(on the scanner which I presume is connected to the machine).
This post doesn't provide enough information on the context. Is this on a normal computer or a touch screen in a specially built unit? Is there a mouse or a keyboard? What is on the part of the screen not shown in the photo?
For all the posts to disagree is a pretty clear sign that it is broken. But why are we going to one celled organisms for our music? And why are we saying "acid trip" like that's a bad thing?
Hey man, far out. Thanks for the tip, and I'll like to try out a free acid trip! Gotta get me to this Amoeba dude! Oh wow the pretty colors are just trippy. What song is playing, who cares man, just keep the flashing lights and colors, and I'll just mellow out!
According to this website (TIB), the only really perfect interface, for the truly perfect customer experience is this: you walk into a store, (music store, grocery, clothing, whatever) and immediatly, a clerk hands you what you wanted, you wave your credit card at them (or maybe just stare into an eyeball reader) to pay for it and leave. Total time shopping, 12 seconds, no words need be spoken. Anything else is just a waste of time and an agravation that must be stopped.
In my defense:
1. I love going to places named after single-celled organisms for music.
2. I have nothing against acid trips - I am on acid right now in fact.
3. The UI on this IS an abomination and so is Win Amp which has a UI only a geek could love IMO
4. Polling skinny indie-rocker guys is fun
5. Yes, this picture is not very good - but I took it from a camera phone so I would not get chucked out.
So in an effort be part of the solution and not the problem
I propose the following suggestions to simplify this mess..
Imagine:
1. User approaches the kiosk - some visual with record recommendations is running while it is in idle mode..
2. The user puts the CD under the scanner thingy (which is how it works today - (in theory)
3. Song is found and the music player is activated.
4. The user will be given a clear list of songs - they can touch the screen or use the fast forward or rev buttons to move from song to song.
5. In a small are an the screen will be other albums by the artist and recommendations based on the SKU.
6. I would also like to see an "Amoeba Recommends" feature. A one touch button to take the user to a screen where a user can peruse recommendations by new releases genre or store employee picks.
A little good information design and thinking through the primary use cases goes a long way.
Good, clear design in this case = more things someone might want to buy = mo money.
Here's an interesting question - how do you get companies/stores/etc. that have broken experiences (like this music player) to:
a) Understand they are broken? (after all, maybe everyone at Amoeba is a geek and thinks this UI is great, or more likely they have never looked at it - and either way, wouldn't they first need to know if they are losing sales before caring about fixing it?)
b) Fix them the right way? (if Amoeba did decide to fix it, how do you think they would go about doing it? Ask somebody's cousin who's a compsci major? Or go to some web developer who just does cool graphics)?
Anyway, I think the discussions here should sometimes go beyond "why" something is broken and look at how they can be fixed in a real world situation. We all know that maybe 1% of laypersons might vaguely know of a discipline called "web design" (let alone UI design and interaction design), and the majority of people who bill themselves as "web designers" don't know anything about design or human factors.
So how do the owners of broken things realistically deal with that?
-- Alex
"3. The UI on this IS an abomination and so is Win Amp which has a UI only a geek could love IMO"
-aynne
I'm a geek and can't stand winamp. Despite the nerd-cores who hate the program, iTunes is a perfect example of a clean, simple music player with all of it's features easily readable and accessible. That, and it processes audio data far better than WMP or winamp.
"So in an effort be part of the solution and not the problem
I propose the following suggestions to simplify this mess..."
Based on your suggestions, it seems like you should be using iTunes (minus the Amoeba Recommends feature...
1. User approaches the kiosk [computer screen]
2. The user puts the CD under the scanner thingy [search for a song title or artist]
3. Song is found and the music player is activated [check]
4. The user will be given a clear list of songs - they can touch the screen or use the fast forward or rev buttons to move from song to song [check]
5. In a small are an the screen will be other albums by the artist and recommendations based on the SKU [check]
I don't know what is so confusing I looked at the picture for ten seconds and figured it out. I don't think it is broken at all. No offense to anyone but you just have to look at it for a couple of seconds the buttons are clearly displayed.
Don't go to Amoeba, you can trip out yourself, you know -- The little trippy window comes with any nonlight installation of winamp...
The (AVS) preset shown in particular is from this (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/72463/) preset pack, #6. It is ridiculously old, and there are trippier, higher-FPS things...
I want to ask, what's the screen for again?
it says "next selection press enter". and it also says in three places what song is playing. it isn't that hard.
it says "next selection press enter". and it also says in three places what song is playing. it isn't that hard.
it says "next selection press enter". and it also says in three places what song is playing. it isn't that hard.
"it says "next selection press enter"." -Jen
Pressing enter will probably skip to the next album, not track. From what is shown I see no way to go to the next track. Lots of stuff is left out of the photo, so maybe there is a way.
It's nice to know that about 1/2 of the people in this thread could quickly and easily design a much better interface for this application. It's better to know that the other 1/2 can actually read...
it looks easy to use, though i'm the type of person that would call MS-DOS easy to use, to play the next song, just select it from the list, and it should play, and to skip to a part in a song, move the slider, I would not call it broken
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This is not a comment- it is an acid trip.
Posted by: gmangw at May 29, 2006 12:16 AM