Oxymoron
24 November 09
This is the ELSE Mobile. It’s a touch screen phone. They’re all the rage, I hear.
I’ve not used the ELSE Mobile, but I know from their website that I needn’t bother. I know because they claim this handset demonstrates a:
“user-experience-centric philosophy designed to enhance man-machine capabilities through pre-integration services.”
With this lone sentence, ELSE instantly destroy any pretence of user-centred design. No user-centred company would let their copywriters produce such unmitigated nonsense. I barely need to mention the splash screen, the breaking of the Back button, the grammatical errors (“Most device are…”) and the autoplaying music on the Flash monstrosity they call a website.
This, dear reader, is the opposite of user experience design.
[Thanks to Lewis for the link.]
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8 comments on Oxymoron
If a copywriter wrote their copy he ought to be taken out back and shot.
It looks like the work of an entrepreneur or a marketing manager or the CEO. A copywriter *probably* knows better.
You’re right Leif, it screams ‘marketese’ rather than the work of a content specialist.
I’d dearly love to know more about the processes that gave birth to this copy. Who knows, perhaps there is a skilled UX team behind the interaction design of the handset, desperately clawing at their own skin when they see how their product has been marketed. But I’m far from hopeful. I suspect it’s more the case that a low-ranking mobile company has decided to “compete on UX” (perhaps because that’s what people say Apple do) and grasped the wrong end of the wrong stick.
@leif The music you can stop and you might not like the site, but to take the copywriter back and shot them? The site is not that bad. We are not the target for this product. When is the last time that you made a PERFECT website?
If you ask me it looks incredibly difficult to use that phone and find anything on it. Surely if you have 1000 text messages you’re not going to want to scroll through every one. Plus how would you know which is which.
I know they’re going for simple and conciseness but this is a bit too much in my opinion!
I can’t believe you would blast a new interaction concept on such a basis as “poor copy” and a bad website. Some people have no foresight.
Personally, I can’t WAIT to use this phone. And BRAVO to the people who have taken a chance to think outside the box of user interface concepts and design.
I didn’t look *too* hard, but I couldn’t see any reference to the UI being reversible for left-handers. Being left-handed, the UI as displayed wouldn’t be usuable at all, I’d say.
I’m sure they have thought about this, but it seems to be an omission not to mention it.
Paul.
It’s not that bad, taking into account that English may not be the copywriter’s first language, but publishing copy without (a native speaker) proofreading it is not really forgivable.
It is marketing droid speak, but could that be the language that the target group (not you, perhaps) wants to hear?
It is a multimedia-laden, kind of SF-themed Flash site, but again, might the whole concept be just right for marketing and demonstrating the functionality of a piece of cutting-edge tech like this to its target group? As autoplaying music, sure, it’s annoying – so turn it off. Would you say the same about a band’s Flash site that dared to autoplay their latest hit?
To sum up, I think your criticism may be a little harsh, especially as you go on to reject the legitimacy of criticizing a designer’s clients in a comic, even if it actually happened; removing the author’s note at the bottom of the panel shown that says he was quoting a client – that ain’t right.
Other than that: love your blog, love your work, happy holidays :)
I don’t know much about this product, but is there a left handed version? A left handed person would struggle to use the mobile in the demo on the website
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