julian/blog

Over the past few weeks there have been a number of articles like this one basically saying that people are really stupid for buying the iPod shuffle.

Let’s try to get a few things straight about the iPod and interfaces in general. Interfaces are not like most other things in this world. You do not benefit from having the biggest, most complicated, most featureful interface. More features does not necessarily make something better. Having the right features for you and making those features easy and/or efficient to use is what makes an interface good. If someone doesn’t need an FM radio, you’re in no position to tell them they need an FM radio and are stupid for not getting one. The best interface is an interface you don’t even realize you’re using. It’s a limit function: As the interface(’s apparent manifestation) approaches zero, the ease-of-use skyrockets. You shouldn’t have to think about the fact that you’re even using an interface.

The iPod and iPod mini are not popular because they have the easiest interfaces to learn. A lot of iPod-haters say they tried one and found it difficult to use. Yes, the wheel takes some learning. The amazing thing about the actual iPod’s interface is how efficient it is after it’s been learned. But really, the iPod and iPod mini are not even popular because of that. Part of their popularity is due to their simplicity in appearance and use once you learn them, yes. The largest part of their popularity, however, doesn’t even come from the iPod hardware itself. The iPod would not be impressive if it shipped with the software that every other digital music player ships with. It would also not be as popular. The iPod is so phenomenally popular because it’s dead simple to get music onto it—and once that music is on it’s really easy to manage changes to what goes on there.

That’s what makes the iPod shuffle such a great product. The iPod shuffle is not targeted at everyone. It’s not even targeted at me. I wouldn’t be able to stand the iPod shuffle because I don’t usually listen to random music. I want exactly the music I’m thinking about listening to. But guess what? I’m not everyone. There are a lot of people out there who just listen to random music. They would barely make use of an iPod mini’s interface, let alone an iPod’s. The iPod shuffle is for those people. The “Autofill” feature is what makes the iPod shuffle a worthwhile product. If iTunes didn’t exist, then all your arguments against the iPod shuffle would probably be true. It would probably come with some crappy software that makes you manually select songs to go on it or something lame like that. The iPod shuffle does not exist in a vacuum, however, and that is why people want it.

Let me get this straight. He didn’t like the user interfaces on other MP3 players, so he instead opted for a device with virtually no interface to speak of, save for the traditional play/pause/forward/back buttons.

Scott Wasson

You got that right, Scott, that’s exactly what interfaces are about. The closer you approach to not feeling like you’re using an interface at all, the better it is.

The iPod shuffle is going to be as phenomenally popular as the rest of the iPod family. And it’s not because people are stupid—it’s because it’s so insanely easy to make it Just Work.

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