My wife lost her key to our RAV4 and after many inquiries has not found it yet. Getting a new key is rather pricey.
To avoid a repeat I decided to buy some tracking devices. Based on some reviews, I chose TrackR over Tile.
The results so far have been mixed. My main question is why do so many manufacturers make their product hard to use. There is a large amount of literature about human interface design.
After having one round-about success with one TrackR and a bust with a second, I wrote the following review on the Best Buy website. I also left some comments on the TrackR website but have yet to hear back from them.
My comment is also posted at http://www.bestbuy.com/site/trackr-bravo-tracking-device-set-silver/5404500.p?skuId=5404500&cmp=RMX&reviewid=115333799&campaignid=rvwapp20161714#tabbed-customerreviews
I found the iPhone App somewhat unresponsive and confusing to use. For example, it was several minutes before the app would respond the first time I opened it. Then buttons didn't seem to work until I had maneuvered over the screens a bit.
The main screen is not intuitive. It is divided into three overlapping parts: A summary of four items, a display with a map for where the the device is located (or the iPhone), and a summary of devices. The selection of the overlapping parts is a stack fo three lines to go between the first and second part and three vertical dots to go between the second and third parts. Why not double arrows?
The second TrackR I installed worked OK, but it would not respond after it left the house and returned. Bluetooth settings don't recognize it inches away.
Also, the iPhone settings give tkr as the name of all TrackR devices installed.
Back to the workbench to get this straightened out, hopefully in a day or two,
Showing posts with label human interface. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human interface. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Personal and corporate screw-ups
I received a letter today from Minnesota Revenue that I still owed income taxes for 2013.
My first look at my spreadsheet didn’t find anything wrong. Maybe the state wasn’t considering the tax withheld by payers to us. When I looked further, I had put fixed data in a worksheet rather than linking to a figure elsewhere. Ouch!
I won’t let the state off entirely. The letter only listed the estimated tax payments I had made, not the tax withheld.
As I was adjusting my spreadsheet, Microsoft sent a notice that upgrades to Office were available. I waited for these to be downloaded and installed, and then continued my correction of my tax spreadsheet.
The download or my correction may have been a big mistake. Excel crashed twice! The restored spreadsheet looked was altered in bad ways. Not only were the fonts in some cells changed, the size and shading of a window was changed. The resulting sheets were ugly!
Speaking of spreadsheets, I won’t let Apple get off the hook. For some reason, Apple has not included named cells or groups of cells in Numbers as in Excel. One has to use an obscure coding using a page name and row numbers and column letters. At least, if one changes the location of the cell or group, Numbers does adjust for the change.
My first look at my spreadsheet didn’t find anything wrong. Maybe the state wasn’t considering the tax withheld by payers to us. When I looked further, I had put fixed data in a worksheet rather than linking to a figure elsewhere. Ouch!
I won’t let the state off entirely. The letter only listed the estimated tax payments I had made, not the tax withheld.
As I was adjusting my spreadsheet, Microsoft sent a notice that upgrades to Office were available. I waited for these to be downloaded and installed, and then continued my correction of my tax spreadsheet.
The download or my correction may have been a big mistake. Excel crashed twice! The restored spreadsheet looked was altered in bad ways. Not only were the fonts in some cells changed, the size and shading of a window was changed. The resulting sheets were ugly!
Speaking of spreadsheets, I won’t let Apple get off the hook. For some reason, Apple has not included named cells or groups of cells in Numbers as in Excel. One has to use an obscure coding using a page name and row numbers and column letters. At least, if one changes the location of the cell or group, Numbers does adjust for the change.
Thursday, February 07, 2013
Apple's stock may go up
A few days ago I attributed the drop in the price of Apple stock to a problem that many iPhone and iPad users are having. See "Why Apple's stock price went down".
Thanks to Candy in Apple Support I have the solution.
Candy listened patiently to my tale of woe about not being able to access some feature because of password problems. She then walked me through the steps to resolve it. What she pointed out was not in any of the published Apple solutions and was not even visible on my screen without scrolling down. In 15 minutes or so, I had the problem fixed on my iPad and iPhone.
I thought I could fix the problem the same way on my Mac, but the applications and screens were not anywhere near the same as on the iPad and iPhone screens. Fortunately, there was another discussion on the Apple forum that had the solution for the Mac.
If you need these solutions, see https://discussions.apple.com/message/21108977#21108977.
Support people like Candy are probably worth twice as much they are paid. Too many companies have support people who use flowery language ("my pleasure to serve you") and too often have no real solution other than pointing you to a document that doesn't have the solution either. People like Candy make a customer very glad they chose a particular company's product, and it is very difficult to measure their value. I know her value to me was saving me more hours of frustration.
So if you are an Apple shareholder, I hope the news of Candy's help and the resolution of many people's problem makes the value of your stock go up.
Thanks to Candy in Apple Support I have the solution.
Candy listened patiently to my tale of woe about not being able to access some feature because of password problems. She then walked me through the steps to resolve it. What she pointed out was not in any of the published Apple solutions and was not even visible on my screen without scrolling down. In 15 minutes or so, I had the problem fixed on my iPad and iPhone.
I thought I could fix the problem the same way on my Mac, but the applications and screens were not anywhere near the same as on the iPad and iPhone screens. Fortunately, there was another discussion on the Apple forum that had the solution for the Mac.
If you need these solutions, see https://discussions.apple.com/message/21108977#21108977.
Support people like Candy are probably worth twice as much they are paid. Too many companies have support people who use flowery language ("my pleasure to serve you") and too often have no real solution other than pointing you to a document that doesn't have the solution either. People like Candy make a customer very glad they chose a particular company's product, and it is very difficult to measure their value. I know her value to me was saving me more hours of frustration.
So if you are an Apple shareholder, I hope the news of Candy's help and the resolution of many people's problem makes the value of your stock go up.
Friday, February 01, 2013
Why Apple's stock price went down
Many attribute the big drop in the price of Apple's stock to iPhone 5 sales not being higher. Could it be that it really is that Apple is not paying attention to the problems of its existing customers. With the introduction of iOS 6 for the iPad and iPhone, many people are having trouble using passwords that had been working fine. This has been going on since at least September, 2012, and nobody from Apple seems to respond to the problems addressed in the "Apple Community" forums.
As I said in "Why Facebook's stock price went down", "it's software is too buggy."
I posted the following today at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4316010?start=30&tstart=0.
I think that this Apple ID/password mess is just too much bother. I don't know how many hours I've spent researching the problem and trying some of the solutions.
Like many of you, I've wound up with multiple Apple IDs; let's call them A, B, and C. If I remember correctly, I got into this because I forgot a password. At the time, I remember that the only solution seemed to be to create another Apple ID. So now I can get into iTunes with ID A, but almost everything on my iPhone, iPod, and iCloud are for ID B. I know that a month ago ID B had a password in a short list.
With the upgrade to iOS 6.1 and maybe before, none of the recent passwords for ID B are acceptable. If I ask to change the password for ID B, it will not accept my birthdate as the first security question and it will not always send me email.
Even though ID B is in the list of email addresses for ID A, there is no way I can use the ID A change page to change the password for ID B.
I think this whole situation violates the Human Interface Principles for iOS of consistency and user control. See http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/Principles/Principles.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH5-SW1.
I've resigned myself to living without access to iCloud, with consistently clicking "ignore" or whatever when iCal and others ask for my ID B password, and a host of other annoyances. I've already sent feedback to Apple. I suggest you do the same at http://www.apple.com/feedback/, selecting iPad, iPhone, or iPod. Maybe if a few hundred of us do this, Apple will come up with a better solution than the varied advice here that works in some situations and not others.
UPDATE: See "Apple's stock may go up" for the resolution of this problem.
As I said in "Why Facebook's stock price went down", "it's software is too buggy."
I posted the following today at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4316010?start=30&tstart=0.
I think that this Apple ID/password mess is just too much bother. I don't know how many hours I've spent researching the problem and trying some of the solutions.
Like many of you, I've wound up with multiple Apple IDs; let's call them A, B, and C. If I remember correctly, I got into this because I forgot a password. At the time, I remember that the only solution seemed to be to create another Apple ID. So now I can get into iTunes with ID A, but almost everything on my iPhone, iPod, and iCloud are for ID B. I know that a month ago ID B had a password in a short list.
With the upgrade to iOS 6.1 and maybe before, none of the recent passwords for ID B are acceptable. If I ask to change the password for ID B, it will not accept my birthdate as the first security question and it will not always send me email.
Even though ID B is in the list of email addresses for ID A, there is no way I can use the ID A change page to change the password for ID B.
I think this whole situation violates the Human Interface Principles for iOS of consistency and user control. See http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/Principles/Principles.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH5-SW1.
I've resigned myself to living without access to iCloud, with consistently clicking "ignore" or whatever when iCal and others ask for my ID B password, and a host of other annoyances. I've already sent feedback to Apple. I suggest you do the same at http://www.apple.com/feedback/, selecting iPad, iPhone, or iPod. Maybe if a few hundred of us do this, Apple will come up with a better solution than the varied advice here that works in some situations and not others.
UPDATE: See "Apple's stock may go up" for the resolution of this problem.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Corporate Whimsy
Facebook, that time gobbler that so many can't do without and so many hate, is at it again changing the way it works.
Yesterday I posted a picture on Flickr and then wrote a note on Facebook with a link to the picture. When I clicked return, the picture was showing on my message list. A few friends commented on it and I saw the picture above their comments.
Today as I scrolled through my list of messages, the picture was gone but the text remained. I left a comment about it, and one friend said she hadn't seen it before and now she did.
One of the first rules of good human interface is consistency. If I do a certain thing in a certain set of circumstances, I should be able to get a similar result each and every time.
Facebook is not alone in inconsistent user interfaces. Microsoft, Apple, and many others confuse users time after time.
Through iTunes I download Wisconsin Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" podcasts, receiving two each week. Suddenly, about four weeks ago I was getting only one. Last week I got none. This week I got one. With a little email help from the TTBOOK host, Jim Fleming, I figured out that iTunes or somebody has decided that I don't need podcasts that I've already downloaded, even if they were from two or more years ago. TTBOOK does rebroadcast programs and thus republishes the podcasts. But shouldn't I be the one to decide that I don't want to listen to an old program again?
Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac had programmable macros with an extensive, easily used description for each available function. Microsoft decided to take macros out in Office 2008. They said users should write AppleScripts instead. I'll just say that AppleScript is a byzantine programming language. Microsoft decided to put macros back in Office 2011, but many old macros don't work or only work erratically. And the descriptions of the functions are often incomplete.
I'm sure many readers have their own tales of frustration about how software, computers, cars, and customer service departments work. So many of what we depend on may be produced efficiently, but do we get effective results using them?
Yesterday I posted a picture on Flickr and then wrote a note on Facebook with a link to the picture. When I clicked return, the picture was showing on my message list. A few friends commented on it and I saw the picture above their comments.
Today as I scrolled through my list of messages, the picture was gone but the text remained. I left a comment about it, and one friend said she hadn't seen it before and now she did.
One of the first rules of good human interface is consistency. If I do a certain thing in a certain set of circumstances, I should be able to get a similar result each and every time.
Facebook is not alone in inconsistent user interfaces. Microsoft, Apple, and many others confuse users time after time.
Through iTunes I download Wisconsin Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" podcasts, receiving two each week. Suddenly, about four weeks ago I was getting only one. Last week I got none. This week I got one. With a little email help from the TTBOOK host, Jim Fleming, I figured out that iTunes or somebody has decided that I don't need podcasts that I've already downloaded, even if they were from two or more years ago. TTBOOK does rebroadcast programs and thus republishes the podcasts. But shouldn't I be the one to decide that I don't want to listen to an old program again?
Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac had programmable macros with an extensive, easily used description for each available function. Microsoft decided to take macros out in Office 2008. They said users should write AppleScripts instead. I'll just say that AppleScript is a byzantine programming language. Microsoft decided to put macros back in Office 2011, but many old macros don't work or only work erratically. And the descriptions of the functions are often incomplete.
I'm sure many readers have their own tales of frustration about how software, computers, cars, and customer service departments work. So many of what we depend on may be produced efficiently, but do we get effective results using them?
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