positive and negative weights

I’ve been craving an iPhone since the first one came out. But I knew that a 3G version was on the way, so I waited. This time, I assumed there would be crushing lines and bugs, so I waited. I’m still waiting. In part, it’s probably due to the fact that I love my Blackberry Curve’s keyboard. Hard little buttons that I can mash very fast.

I’ve been watching a few new people deal with the Apple paradigms and, of course, struggle. I remember the first time I got an iPod, vs the prior non-Apple MP3 players I had. It’s always a struggle at first for me, no matter what platform. “You’re converting my files to what format? Where are they…hidden now? I can’t sync my iPod at home and at work? I can’t back my music from home up on my work machine…why not, since my iPod is basically a portable harddrive?”

Intuitive just means “like something I’ve done before.”

What’s interesting to me is the weight we give to annoying features vs pleasing features. For instance, the iPhone does most things much better than my Blackberry. I am fascinated by the fact that the iPhone supports web browsing so well, has YouTube, the screen is gorgeous, the fingertouch interface is revolutionary, and it doubles as an iPod. But again I still have a Blackberry simply because the iPhone keyboard annoys the hell out of me.

So which is “better?” Do negative or positive weights matter more? How strong one way or the other does something have to be to overcome all other considerations? For that matter, is the suckiness of the iPhone keyboard a negative, or is the Blackberry’s a positive?

I will eventually get an iPhone: One device, with phone, camera, the web, my music, etc…it’s unbeatable. So I’m sure I will eventually overlook the 3 or so really annoying things about the iPhone in favor of the pleasing features. In currently prefering my Blackberry, I’ve simply already accepted the features that annoy me on the Blackberry. (And there are a bunch…)

3 thoughts on “positive and negative weights

  1. Harvey-hey!

    Get an iphone, man. It’s the first viable games cell phone I’ve ever seen. Played Crash Racing on the plane today and it was pretty darn fun. It’s no MGS4 but for a portable game, it’s darn good stuff. And the Apps store makes the typical hassle of finding and buying games on a cell phone a thing of the past.

    David

  2. This very topic is covered in depth in Emotional Design by your friend and mine, Donald A Norman. He goes in depth on why things that are pleasing to the eye tend to be forgiven more design flaws than things that are not.

    Dead good book which you’ve probably already read…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *