It is now 2:31 am in the morning here in New York. While fixing my things, I realized that I will be spending this January Term studying some of the most interesting topics in the world: Australia, Anthropology, Art, just to name a few.
So, with that, I’ve created a new category for this blog that focuses specifically on this as I embark on a three week journey this coming January studying these very interesting things.
User experience is not just learning what the user needs when it comes to design. It also involves knowing what the user needs from a business perspective.
So, for this week’s post, I worked on coming up with a competitive analysis of major music streaming sites, comparing each of the different services in terms of pricing, family options and amount of music, among others. Here’s what I got:
So, from this analysis, it easy to see how a big part of which service people chose may just be the free tier, especially for the mass consumer. Given that all that, Spotify seems to be the clear winner.
Of course, this analysis has limitations. We have to take into account the fact that Apple Music is already pre-installed into the iPhone and other iOS devices.
Overall though, it seems as if it’s just a cost question, and at this point, I can see that Spotify is winning this cost game as it has ad-supported free music streaming.
It’s interesting how nowadays words like carbon foot printing are just being slushed around, with values sometimes arbitrarily placed into data. In this particular instance, I analyzed Springline Staplers by breaking it down to its constituent parts, calculating the carbon emissions caused by each of these constituent parts, and all together, really understand how much impact a simple stapler can have on the environment!
Bill of Materials and Supply Chain mapping give us great tools and hints into the environmental impacts of the products we use in our daily lives. In this particular case, I unearth how Hershey’s Supply Chain works, as well as what I predict would constitute as the bill of materials (ingredients) for Reese’s!
You’ve experienced. I’ve experienced it. You’re just about to take the perfect picture of the entire vacation, up in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, …and then someone runs past, ruining that perfect shot, and that perfect moment.
Don’t say that you’ve not experienced it. We all have. And what do we do when these things happen, oh, we try and try and try to get another great picture, but to most of us, that moment was just gone.
Well, Adobe has come up with a cool solution for that! And it involves taking multiple pictures, stitching them together to capture a great picture of monuments–without the unwanted tourists! In the video I included, you can see the magic of this new app. You just take a picture, then it does some image stitching for you. Once you’ve got most of the tourists gone, voila, the perfect vacation shot!
What’s important for Adobe now is to be able to release quickly before competitors along, as well as release mobile versions that can easily fix pictures on phones. It’s something that so many people face, but come with a super duper simple answer. And so, that’s one more for Adobe!
For a while now, I’ve been an Apple user. I remember my first iPod very well. It was one of those iPod classics that had the cool wheel and had a ginormous amount of storage! (30 GB was incredibly large, especially if you consider the Flash Drives back then were 128 mbs!) From then on, I’ve been converted to an Apple fan.
But Microsoft’s release of the new Microsoft Surface Book has got me thinking how much longer that loyalty might stay. Watching the release of the Surface Book, I didn’t expect much. But as of 12:47 pm today, I just want to go the Best Buy nearest me, and just hold one of these in my hands. I just wanna grab a hold of that Surface Pen, and just draw.
In this regard, I realize that there are quite a few user experience choices that Microsoft has made to better experiences with their products for the users. Over the last few months, I’ve been seeing Apple try to copy, if not catch up, with Microsoft’s user experience choices. In particular, I think there are a few salient points to highlight:
The Surface Pen. When I watched one video online of how someone was just gliding through the surface with their pen, I can’t but just want to really try it out myself. The drawings look very fine, and there seemed to be no lag on the part of the pen.
The Writing Experience. I think the best thing I found with the Surface Book is the fact that you can lean your hand on the screen as you write. My perennial problem with iPad drawing apps has always been the fact that my hand had no support while drawing, which means that it is really hand to write a lot of things, and at the same time, it’s also hard to write small things. With my hand snugly resting on the Surface, I can imagine how much more of a pleasant writing experience I would have with that feature on.
The Flexible Screen. I’ve always needed an iPad in addition to my MacBook, just because my Macbook couldn’t be made into an iPad. With the Microsoft Surface, I realize that I could have both of that in just one product. That means no more syncing with iCloud, no more paying for the cloud, among others. It also means that I can easily tilt my screen at a way lower angle when I need to, something that I can’t do with my Macbook.
So with these three features, I’m afraid that Microsoft is slowly converting me to become one it’s users through its very forward-looking, user-centered and user-friendly designs. I honestly can’t wait to drop by a Best Buy to just play around with one of these! I can’t wait!
Lilikha 