Below is an article in the paper regarding the new OS7 software for iPhone.
What I’d like you to pay most attention to is the highlighted quote from Baluca Budiu, a researcher from the Neilsen group.
Now I appreciate some people were expecting more innovation from Apple … I appreciate this update is tinkering with the ‘well known’ … I even accept OS7 has more than a dash of influence from the Windows Mobile operating system … but to suggest that because they both have incorporated a ‘flat design’ means they will both experience the same response from their users is utterly, utterly fucking ridiculous.
Virgin Atlantic uses the same jet technology on their aircraft as Garuda Airlines, but that doesn’t mean they both fall out the sky at an alarmingly regular rate.
Nor does the fact I went to the same school – and was taught by the same drama teacher – as Samantha Morton [admittedly at different times] mean I am suddenly going to be a Hollywood actor.
This low rent game of ‘attribute snap’ that people like Baluca like to use to justify their viewpoint, drives me nuts.
At best it’s naive, at worst it’s a demonstration they have no concept or ability to appreciate the importance of context or reality.
Besides, is it really bad that people will have to ‘re-learn’ stuff?
I know Northern wrote a great post about the power of stability, convenience & ease … but I quite like the fact there may be some new things for me to learn … to experience … to play with.
And even if I didn’t, I think I am smart enough to be able to work it out within a few hours, seriously, it’s not going to be that fucking hard and as an added bonus, I get to feel like I’ve achieved something – which is more than I tend to experience on an average day.
For the record, I really like the Windows Phone operating system.
I know some have deemed it ‘a failure’, but even if that is the case, I can assure Baluca, it is for far more reasons than simply because they used a flat display.
Maybe it’s because they called the thing ‘Windows’ … a name that is intimately associated with work when people view their mobile as a tool that gives them freedom.
Or maybe it’s because they linked with a mobile brand that had about as much desirability as a $2 crack whore with a dose of the clap.
Or it could be that after 20 years of telling people to always look for the ‘start’ button, they had forgotten to educate people about the new symbolism.
Or maybe it was too expensive or had shit distribution or they did bad ads or any one of countless other reasons.
The point is, when researchers – or anyone – for that matter, starts spouting viewpoints based on the flimsiest of ‘evidence’, then they are doing themselves far more harm than they are intending to do to the other party, which is why if you ever find yourself in this sort of position, I would encourage you to do one of the following:
1. Remind them of the difference between objectivity and subjectivity.
2. Explain to them why not everyone is entitled to have an opinion.
3. Hit them. Hit them very, very hard.