UX design FAIL

March 3, 2013

Oh, ok, so I just wait 75 days and then I can watch the movie I bought? Sounds great! WTF, #apple @iTunes ???!!! FAIL.

Oh, ok, so I just wait 75 days and then I can watch the movie I bought? Sounds great!

No idea why all of a sudden this started happening (I didn’t “associate” the computer with a different Apple ID), but apparently this has been a known issue for years, since June 2011.

Google search: http://bit.ly/12m325F

I guess the intent was to prevent piracy ( http://betanews.com/2011/06/07/what-happens-when-you-download-itunes-past-purchases-with-a-different-account/ ) but both in concept and implementation this is a horrific user experience fail. Beyond embarrassing.

Simple solution instead of this malarkey: if you try to play or download something that was purchased with a different Apple ID, you are asked to enter the user name / password for the Apple ID used to purchase the item.

I also just learned this:

“Movies rented on your Apple TV are not transferable to any other device and can only be viewed on your Apple TV.” ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1498 )

Fucked up. I love my Apple TV but honestly this is so absurd that I might ditch it and find an alternative…

It’s funny, I just read this article yesterday:

Maybe I’ve been cursed with the Zeldman Curse?!… NOOOOO!!!…
February 10, 2011

Hey, Craig — yeah, you with the list. Either alphabetize or don’t, pal.

I know everyone points to craigslist as an example of why a site doesn’t need to have a nice design to be successful, and blah blah blah.

I say bullshit.

In the first place I have always felt that, because the service they offer is so uniquely valuable, they can get away with having a shitty site — but they are successful in spite of their shitty site, not because of it. But beyond that, their bloody sea of uniform blue links isn’t even organized properly. Aside from using text that flows from 1 column to the next — a print format that doesn’t work well on the web — their lists go from sort-of-not-quite-alphabetized to completely random to alphabetical to random again, seemingly with no rhyme or reason.

I guess the lesson is, you don’t need good design OR logical information architecture for a successful site. Yay!

February 9, 2011

Inexplicable error the first time I launched the app? “OK”? No, not really.

Got this error several times after first launch — great first impression! It doesn’t even try to explain why, or what to do next. It might as well say “This is an error message.”

February 6, 2011

Ah. Well that explains it.

January 13, 2011

Windows: click this close button to open

These little alerts are annoying enough as it is — but have you noticed that there is no difference between clicking the alert and clicking the close button on the alert? Why even put a close button on there???

Ah, Windows, you magnificent bastard.

December 29, 2010

You’re right, WindowsXP, Xcel is the only application I am even considering opening – why bother showing me any others? You know me so well!

Now if only you could also hide half the functions in every menu in Microsoft Word… Oh, wait! Well done again!