Using one of the imacs circa 2000 (the ones with the colourful transparent plastic cases that housed both monitor and comupter) was easily the worst experience I’ve ever had on a computer. One of the worst things was the mouse. Macs always had shitty mice around then, these ugly one button things. Well, with the imac they managed to make it even worse by trying to address just the “ugly” part. And sure, it looked better, but you had to look at it every single time you took your hand off it because it was perfectly round, so you couldn’t tell the orientation just from feel.
And personally, I just hate the “simplicity over everything” approach to UX. It’s like training wheels on a bike. Sure, it’s harder to fall (though these imacs were unstable af and did fall often), but they also prevent you from taking tight turns. “Good for newbies” is not “good in general”.
He’s talking about before the iPhone
Using one of the imacs circa 2000 (the ones with the colourful transparent plastic cases that housed both monitor and comupter) was easily the worst experience I’ve ever had on a computer. One of the worst things was the mouse. Macs always had shitty mice around then, these ugly one button things. Well, with the imac they managed to make it even worse by trying to address just the “ugly” part. And sure, it looked better, but you had to look at it every single time you took your hand off it because it was perfectly round, so you couldn’t tell the orientation just from feel.
And personally, I just hate the “simplicity over everything” approach to UX. It’s like training wheels on a bike. Sure, it’s harder to fall (though these imacs were unstable af and did fall often), but they also prevent you from taking tight turns. “Good for newbies” is not “good in general”.