Dear Sony...

Those of you who know me know I'm a bit of a gadget freak. I also love all things Apple and until recently have had a bit of time for Sony, however I think I may have made my last Sony purchase.

Sony have always been a design-lead company and I've owned a few design classics from that venerable Japanese company. I've owned various Walkmans, both for cassettes and CDs, as well as a couple of rather nice TVs - including a very nice mid-model pre-digital 26" Bravia LCD that is still going strong with a set top box to take care of the digital TV conversion.

So I've always not minded paying a little extra for a quality product. Sony have always delivered and their products always work well, are well designed and generally are solidly built. Sony has never let me down.

Until now.

The story starts at my local big box movers store and trying to find a replacement for my clock radio/iPod dock which was purchased before iPhones came out. My new iPhone was unsupported by this unit so it needed to be replaced.

I also wanted to get a dock with a decent sound quality - not a normal quality of a clock radio - so I looked at the mid to upper price range this time.

I took my iPhone along with a selection of tracks ranging from Beethoven's '9th' to White Zombies' 'More human than human', and proceeded to test a number of different units at high and low volume in the store.

I was impressed by a couple of units and was not surprised that one of the best sounding units was by Sony. The blandly named 'Speaker Dock / Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone' (way to go to the Sony naming department!) fitted the bill, was under my budget figure and I got a deal lower then RRP for it. So far so good.

I took it home, unpacked it and set it up, added my iPhone to charge and played a few tracks to see how good it sounded in my bedroom. It was perfectly suited to the space and worked as well for heavy rock and classical guitar. Perfect.

Well, perfect until it got dark.

I had noticed the bright display when I set it up, but the instructions said it had a brightness control, so that seemed to be covered.

So lets talk about the brightness 'dimmer' settings on the Sony Speaker Dock / Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone. There are, in fact, three. They are bright, brighter and Searchlight mode.

Yes, if you are looking for a clock radio that provides a nice nightlight so that you can walk around your bedroom at night without turning on your bed lamp, this one is for you. If you actually want to sleep in, like, the dark of the night, then sorry this one only works if you have a thick book to sit in front of the display to cover it's searchlight-like illumination.

So Sony had really stuffed up on setting the design parameters for light levels in a bedroom that is the most common place you would put this kind of product. I don't mind having ONE bright setting, but three bright levels and no low light settings? Product design fail.

Now let's look at how Sony handles this problem. They have on the "Support for this product" button that goes to a Support webpage for this

I asked the following question on what I though was their support forum. It has the header "Ask a Question":

"I have one of these models - is there a way you can dim the display right back darker from the three very bright settings it has. Can the display be turned off in any way? It is far to bright to be used in a bedroom."

To which I got the reply: "There are no matching results for ICF-C1IPMK2 - I have one of these models - is there a way you can dim the display right back darker from the three very bright settings it has. Can the display be turned off in any way? It is far to bright to be used in a bedroom."

Yes, it was not in fact a support site, but only returns a FAQ result IF that question has been previously asked and addressed. I had tried asking a question. There was no result and no next task path offered - such as - would you like to submit this question to somebody who actually cares?

So how do I get a question into the Sony online support system in the vain hope of it actually being answered?

Well I did a bit of lateral thinking and saw that in the Support area and saw a prompt box with the heading "Latest FAQs" - and a question about resetting the time in daylight saving mode. Not what I wanted, but maybe the link would take me into an area that had other FAQs. One can only hope with this web site.

And I was right - I did get to a page with ONE FAQ item and - joy of joys - a button that had a label "Can't find what you are looking for?"

Pressing this button got a pop-up with a text box to put your question in. I was dismayed, however with the information about this facility below the box:

"Please describe what you would like to see as detailed as possible. Though a personal response will not be provided, we value your suggestion. Sony will continuously strive to improve the usefulness of the information provided on this site."

Well, I'm sorry Sony, your information so far is as useful as tits on a bull.

This happened because... (a conversation with customer support)

I have an account with a credit card attached that offers loyalty points, but since I don't really do much purchasing using this card I've not really bothered with it - until I got a points statement recently and realised that over time the points can add up, and they also can disappear if you don't use them.

So I decided to try and find my logon account details for these rewards and see what my points could get me.

Not much, really, considering how much I'd spent using this card over the last two years.

Oh well, I thought I'd have a look anyway, especially since the site also offered a Points/Pay system that seems to allow you to pay the remainder when you don't have enough points and there was small home theatre system I thought looked nice that I could get with my points and a little cash.

The Points/Pay option was indicated by the following text just above the Add to Cart button on EVERY product page:

"Don't have enough points? You can use your credit card to pay for the remainder."

So I click on the "Add to Cart" button.

But it didn't work. There was no option for Points/Pay in the cart, even though I have been told on the previous page that I can do this.

Writing to the support email for the site, I got back the following reply:

"Unfortunately you need to have 70 percent of the products points to be able to use the Points/Pay option."

To which I returned the following:

"Fair enough, there is a condition that wasn't met, however there was NO indication WHAT this condition was. One page says I can do something and the next tells me I can't - with no indications why not. I could not find any information on the site on the 70% points rule - it was not in the FAQ or the Terms and Conditions.

BTW, as a user I was looking for a way of setting a points + pay level such as that which is used on my bank's rewards site and assumed that it may be offered once you got to the checkout. They provide this; You don't.

Good user interface design helps your customers by providing timely useful information. In this case the your Rewards site has failed."

In the end they failed to provide relevant information - telling me I can do something and then stopping me AFTER I'd made a purchase decision does not give me a good purchasing experience on this site, and also takes away from normally good relationship with the issuer of the card.

In the end it has meant that I have wasted about 30 mins of my time trying to shop on this site, and now my complaint has aded to the card issuer's support costs - all through bad user interaction task design that really shouldn't have gone live.

Build a Bridge, not a Pier

I once had a meeting with a potential customer that caused me to pause and think about why they really needed my services. Yes, I did my usual user expectations pitch and expected the usual feedback, but a few things came up in the meeting that were a little out of the ordinary for me - and perhaps for them - because until then I believe that neither of us had noticed the big elephant in the room.

The big elephant I speak of is something I haven't seen since the dot com boom and bust days, and that was the old idea of technology for technologies sake.

Yes, they had a product, they had customers and they had a development program that was working on a number of technically brilliant additions to their core product, but they didn't seem to have looked deeply enough at the way the customers actually used their product. There were several reasons for this, but none should have stopped them from seeing what I saw within the first hour of our initial meeting.

So, after talking with the developers and scientists working on the project I found myself wondering if they saw the glaring omission in their product offering the way I did, and should I tell them about it? As I said, I'd only been in their office an hour and although confident in my work experience I was across the room from some pretty impressive scientists and software developers doing pretty bleeding edge work.

On the plus side for me was the knowledge that here was a "meaty" protect I could really add value to. On the negative side, would these guys "get it" enough to do the proverbial "of course" with the accompanying smack to the forehead with the open palm, or would they be offended without getting it, like Nigel talking about going up to "11" in Spinal Tap.

How do you move forward on this - these guys are brilliant in what they do, but they had only really built half a product. They had built a pier, not a bridge.

The metaphor goes like this. Let's say you have a stretch of water that you need to provide a method of moving people and goods from one side to the other. If you build a pier for boats to use you are providing only half of the solution. You still need a boat and another pier on the other side of the watery divide to unload your passengers and goods. You still need a method for the people to move around on the other side of the water and you need a method of handling the goods on both piers.

Yes, you have provided a solution, and probably a cost-effective one at that, but you have also only lessened the barrier to the users of the ferry service getting to the other side of that stretch of water. You have provided an enabling solution but you have also inbuilt into that solution choke points that will still stop some people from using it; people who get seasick for instance.

So perhaps you build a ferry instead? People get to stay in their cars but it can only operate at set times of the day and only when the weather conditions are calm. It doesn't solve the seasick passengers choke point though.

The real solution is a bridge. It is the most expensive option for sure, but it is also the best enabler to the users. Ask any Mayor what their constituents would prefer - a pier, a ferry or a bridge and the bridge wins every time. It is the solution with the least friction.

Going back to my potential new customer. You may have gathered from the monologue so far that they actually have built a pier. They have provided only half the solution - they have allowed the technology to overshadow the task. They have built a mighty pier with all the bells and whistles and don't seem to be as worried about how their customers are going to get to the other side as I am. Their customers actually complete their tasks outside their software; there is a disconnect between what the software achieves and how it is used by the customer.

Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful pier that does exactly what they want it to. I was very impressed in what it does and as a user interface designer I had some simple ways of improving its current form.

But it is as a user experience designer that I could help them improve their work and marketability. I could help them turn their pier into a bridge by helping them to design the choke points out of their products. I could help them provide the total solution for their customers, and hide the complex technology interfaces so that the customer only has to deal with what they need to know about and use on a daily basis.

A user experience designer can help them build a product that allows their users to start and complete their trip across that "watery divide" using software that is simple, intuitive and provides a total solution, not just a partial enabler.

Just an iphone Luddite

Well, I've held out for so darn long, guiltily proud of the fact that I didn't NEED an iPhone.

...and me, a dyed in the wool Apple fanboy from waaaaaayyyyyyyy back (er, 1986!)

In recent years I've found it much harder to justify spending money on gadgets, and updating a phone when the one I have in my pocket is in perfectly good working order (and it fits easily in my pocket!) It is smaller than an iPhone, the battery lasts longer and if I was crazy enough to let e-mail rule my life, I can check my e-mail on it. It uses the same Nokia Symbian OS I've had my phones since 2003 so upgrading is never an issue and transferring data is no longer life-alteringly stressful.

I've asked may different groups of people at meetings, conferences and social events to justify spending nearly a grand on a phone! I wanted a business case for spending that sort of money as I never sign up for a 24 month plan that locks me in and charges horrendously expensive roaming fees when I go overseas.

They have failed to convince me, but not through want of trying.

Friends have shown me how marvellous the iPhone is and how they couldn't do without it - even tech geeks who swear they are open-source champions have locked themselves into the closed-system ecosphere of the iTunes Apps Store.

I've had a 'no' answer for every reason put forward so far. I've been shown fun games ("they're just time wasters"), GPS mapping ("I know where I am, and I can read a map"), Twitter from your phone ("I don't want to tell everybody I just stubbed my toe - seriously I've seen such a tweet!") quick access to e-mail anywhere (see above!).

Even cool cases with amazing designs that allow people to personalise them way beyond the norm have left me a little nonplussed. Being an industrial designer in a former life means that I hate cases and covers that hide the original design - I don't have car seat covers in my car for the same reason!

The list of wonders goes on and, until now, I have shot them all down.

Until now.

It seems that the iPhone phenomena has found my weakness.

No, it wasn't the quick access to e-mail, or the funny free "mouth organ" app. The games are no match for my desktop computer games - although I don't really have much time for them now either. I usually always know where I am can still read a map to get where I'm going.

No, the thing that sold me in the end; the thing I use the most and is - yes - a complete time-waster in most respects - is the Arsenal FC app.

With one click I have access to fixtures, news, the Premier League ladder and player profiles. I live half a world away from London football and I sometimes stay up to watch the Gunners live on satellite TV, or if a game is midweek I tape it and hope the results aren't on the radio news in the morning to spoil the illusion of it being live the following night.

The iPhone Arsenal Football Club application breaches the divide and dislocation I feel from the club. Until now I've only ever had glimpses of life over there.

It is hard to connect to the players as a fan in Australia, and the local game - while entertaining - is not English Premier League. Australia's best players play in EPL, Germany's Bundesliga, the Spanish Primera or the Italian Serie A. All over there in Europe.

Now I CAN enter the world of Arsenal from anywhere, at any time, and I do.

It is an indulgence, but it also is a great reason why the iPhone is a success. It is a content platform that has re-written the book. It's interface is not frightening and I haven't read the instructions - I've been shown how to use it by the many people I tried to ignore over the last 12 months!

Yes, I bought an iPhone last week and now I don't know why I even bothered to hold out with my Nokia. I don't NEED an iPhone, but I'm glad I bought one.

Which gives me another problem.

How to hold off loading the Arsenal site if I haven't watched the previous night's game yet?

Damn, I knew there was a reason I shouldn't have bought that iPhone :-(.

What are AI/UX Specification deliverables?

I'm currently on the receiving end of an external vendor's attempt to define a User Experience Design deliverable.

And frankly I'm not sure whether they have it right or not. And it is not their fault. It is the fault of the organisation I'm currently working for who still follow 10 year old project management principles in high regard - despite the fact they often over-ride the very frameworks and process step that they venerate.

It IS hard moving forward when you are big and are focussed on living in a one project at a time world.

The organisation in question is more contract deliverable focussed and this is not necessarily good for a solution focussed person like me. They shuffle paperwork really well, and their documentation management skills are rather impressive given the volume they generate!

When I started on the project over a year ago I found a complete lack of what one could call user experience design specifications, templates or guideline documentation - and this from an organisation that have been building and supporting quite complex applications for over 20 years - and have internally built web-based sites and business applications all used by the business on a daily basis.

Then, as a UXD I get asked to review a document produced by an external vendor who is now in exactly the same predicament I was in.

And I'm none the wiser.

Scary...