Wii Numbers

Nintendo is a company whose purpose is to design and build so-called family friendly games and gaming systems. Ease of use is paramount in being family friendly. Something that Nintendo has been quite good at for some time. They have, however, made a grave mistake in their “Wii Number” and “Friend Code” system.

In order to play games with friends on the Nintendo Wii system you must first share your “Wii Number” with them. They will have to register it and you will also need to share their “Wii Number” with you too. It would be less painful if it stopped there, unfortunately, you must also register each other “Friend Codes.” The friend codes are associated per game. So a minimum of 16 (Wii Number) + 12 (Friend Code) = 28 numbers are required to play with a friend on line.

This is an example of a monumental failure to uphold G.A. Miller’s item short-term memory capacity. They do try to make it easier by grouping it into four digit chunks; however, the sheer number of numbers required makes the aid nearly moot. Perhaps a system where only the “Wii Number” was required would be much easier to manage. Every other modern console does fine in a manner with a centralized code (or nickname) is used, why not the Wii? I say that Nintendo needs to simplify this number system if they intend on maintaining their ease of use for families.

iPhone UI

Much discussion about the lack of an expected affordance in the iPhone UI has gone around in circles in various on-line communities- where’s the copy and paste?

No doubt the iPhone has the most user friendly interface ever designed for any kind of Smartphone platform yet and the device is so highly regarded as an internet communicator yet to be missing such a simple feature is quite surprising. My first cell phone, a Samsung E715, had copy and paste. If I received a text message which contained something that I wanted to put in my address book I could. While convoluted in the process needed the functionality existed.

Apparently this is just an affordance that we’ve grown to expect in a device with functionality similar to our laptops, desktops, and other computer-like devices. There is a mock-up of how the design for copy-paste would work on iPhone. I completely agree with the original author’s work.

 

iPhone Copy and Paste by lonelysandwich

iPhone Copy and Paste from lonelysandwich on Vimeo.

 

Signal/Battery Strength

A great example of graphical coding which has grown into ubiquity is battery and signal strength bars which are present on nearly any device which requires radio contact or batteries to operate.

They are on nearly every cellular phone, they are seen on GPS devices, and they can be found on our laptops for their Wi-Fi strength. Their purpose is clear. They indicate how strong the connection between two radios is or how charged a battery is. Certainly obfuscated from their actual measurements in dBi or mV- they serve their purpose valiantly. We know what they mean and our expectations are generally accurate with the imagery given.

An example of my signal strength being quite poor, my Wi-Fi being decent, and my Battery being not quite full.

A quick look at the screenshot of my iPhone UI shows quickly how easy it is to read the graphical coding which has been used by Apple.

The battery and signal bars have been engraved in our minds though commercial advertisements and though our gadget-centric society. I’m glad to report that it’s a system that works and doesn’t require any obvious revising to make it better.

My HCI Notebook

Is virtually empty. I’ve written down a few things but mostly junk. I find it more useful to take pictures of things that are weird/good/interesting with my iPhone and reviewing the pictures later. I am definitely not a “write-it-down” kind of person and I really can’t get used to it.

Not all those pictures are mine and the video certainly isn’t. However the text is all mine so if you want to plagiarize me you’ll have to ask first. I will not be held responsible for your failing grades. Thanks.