Judging from Firefox it must be circa 2001.  Otherwise, why would Firefox insist on using Stuffit to expand .zip archives?

The year cannot be, say, 2009, because by then the Mac will certainly have had unzipping capability built-in for years, rendering the clunky and obtrusive StuffIt completely obsolete.

Now, if I can only figure out how to get my Mac to stop syncing the system clock forward to 2009…

I thought that this sort of thing was behind us.  What happened to just dragging an item into the Applications folder?

This design is old.  It came was modeled after installer from the Windows 3.1 era.  You’ve seen it, the one that starts off, “The Install Wizard will now guide you through the setup process.”  Gee thanks, now I know to roll up my sleeves.  (How about if it just installed the software?)

Apple has been exemplary at questioning and slashing out wasteful steps.  Apparently they haven’t gotten to this old thing.

Dedicated buttons for expressing your pleasure with the current song, or lack thereof

Music is so easy to come by these days. We should be in sonic bliss, right? But we aren’t, because so much of what we have on our music players is, well, crap. Our shuffled music is a mix of stuff we love and stuff we don’t. Not so pleasant.

Our goal is not just to get piles of music, it’s to have piles of music that we love. We want our music collection to have a high signal-to-noise ratio.

The iPod has a clever function to let you rank a song you hear. If a bad song comes on, you can rank it as one star and delete it from you collection when you get back to your computer.

The trouble is, it’s way too much trouble to do this. On a typical iPods it’s a multistep, multi-sensory operation: 1. Unlock the buttons 2. press the select button repeatedly while watching the device until you are in the rating mode (not the volume mode, not the progress bar mode, not the album cover mode) 3. turn the clickwheel while watching the screen to get the right number of stars 4. Click select to confirm 5. re-lock your buttons. Then, later, you need to do the cleanup chore: return to iTunes, search for your one-star songs and destroy them.

Not only is this a lot of work, it’s also completely non-viable if you are driving, running, or doing anything else that occupies your eyes or attention. The net result is you don’t. You must endure the bad music until the next time you are able to take a few hours out to hone your music collection, which is to say, forever.

Here’s the design to steal for a modern music device: real, tactile, mode-less Thumbs-Up and Thumbs-Down buttons on the surface of the music player. (Not the typical Apple non-button button.) (Thank you Pandora for the thumbs up/down inspiration). Pressing the thumbs affects the song’s star rating, and thus their likelihood of it being selected by the elven DJ within the machine.

Here’s the fun part: Pressing and holding the Thumbs-down button banishes the song from your ears permanently (after a second confirmation press). No further interaction needed. You can do it while running or driving or conversing. It’s gone from your portable player and after syncing, it’s gone from your desktop.

This gets even more interesting with subscription music services fed to portable music players, which let you listen to as much as you want as long as you keep paying. The system feeds you songs you might like. You gong the songs you hate by pressing and holding the thumbs-down button. The next song begins right away. The banished song is kept on a do-not-play list forevermore.

Music subscription services sometimes let you capture and keep songs you like. With this design you would do the opposite: press and hold the Thumbs Up button to keep the song locally for access anytime.

Thumbs Up/Down buttons should also appear on your home audio remote control, for the same reasons.

There are a couple of other bonus ideas to steal. Now that rating information is facilitated, the information can be shared:

• with artists and advertisers, so they know whom to reward for appreciated songs
• with your friends, so you can see who likes what (if you are into that sort of thing)
• with the whole world, to do your part in sorting through the gobs of indy music being produced. Later, those elven DJs in the machine can feed you the best indy music as rated by the collective.

Very quickly, the signal:noise ratio of your music collection would go up, increasing our enjoyment of music and minimizing the hassle of managing it. Which is nice, because life is too short to listen to bad music.

[Update 1/18/09: the Slacker G2 player, introduced 8 months after this article was published, has "Heart" and "Ban" buttons for tuning its 1-to-1 streaming audio service.]

Apple already got AT&T to do the work to support visual voicemail. This is a good thing for users, since it’s much faster to be able to use one’s eyes to navigate interfaces than only one’s ears.

But why must voicemail be accessible only from your cellphone? Users already have a web login for their cellphone accounts. Why not allow users to access voicemail through a web interface? Then you could skim the messages, type text message responses from the browser or even initiate a callback from the far more efficient UI of your computer. (The callback would call your cellphone then the other party’s.)

While we’re at it, why not have an IMAP connector to your voicemail? You could then process voice messages as you process your email. The only difference is when you open the email message there would be a voice attachment to play. Since it’s using the glorious magic of IMAP, messages you read or delete are kept in sync with the server and your mobile phone, so your phone doesn’t nag you with a message you already processed. (Office VoIP PBX phone systems have permitted these scenarios for years, and they are great.)

By the same token: It’s been two years since I wrote about how cellphone configuration would be better done with a web interface. Is anyone doing this yet?

Why must this be so?  Why can’t we have multiple active phones tied to the same number?  Cellphones are so cheap.

Why not allow multiple phones to be tied to one mobile number?  Then, an incoming call would call all of them.  It would allow all sorts of wonderful scenarios.  You could have:

• You could keep your powerful PDA/communicator/GPS smartphone like the iPhone as your main device
• You could have another tiny mini-cellphone/MP3 player to take running — something like an “iPhone Shuffle”.  (Today I must leave my phone behind because it is too bulky to run with.  But I’d rather have one with me for contingencies.)
• You could have a backup cellphone to grab when you are rushing out the door, when you misplace or lose one
• You could have a real, standalone hands-free cellphone integrated into your car.   No messing with clumsy cables or bluetooth to dock it to your one and only phone.
• You could have a cellphone built into your laptop computer. Your computer would “ring” when someone called.   You could answer it there on speaker phone.  You could process voicemail visually from your desktop.  The cellphone service would provide your laptop with data, voice and video call connectivity when you are away from a friendly WiFi signal.
• You could replace your home service and home wireless phone with 2 or 3 cellphones cradled around the house.  You could walk into the yard or even down the block without losing service.

Readers: We in the USA are mobile phone laggards. Does this capability exist anywhere in the world yet?

NEW request [1/5/09]  If you could have multiple phone lines directed to the same cellphone, then you could have your home phone ring both spouses, and you could have your office number also go to you main cellphone.  Of course you’d want to be able to configure any number to drop right into voicemail.  You don’t want work calls to interfere with your weekend or vacation life.  (This capability is close to what GrandCentral does, but I’m imagining the experience to be more unified, with less players and complexity.)

[Updated 1/5/09 to clarify and add the multiple-numbers per cellphone.]

We’re so lucky. We have cellphones and GPS, cheap high speed Internet, free shipping and Wiis. I’m grateful, I really am. The progress has been astounding.

But there are some perennial UI issues in everyday products that year after year never seem to get fixed. Every year I expect someone will finally do something but year after year ticks by and nothing happens. Perhaps if I wish real hard out loud here on StealThisIdea some of these these problems will finally be resolved.

Here is my wishlist for 2008:

1. Awesome speech recognition on MacSpeech recognition works and it’s here to stay. It is one of the few remaining advantages that Windows has over the Mac. Unfortunately the Mac has been second-class citizen for years. It’s only worth using the best speech recognition system available, and that system is Dragon NaturallySpeaking, available for Windows only. Apple, buy Nuance, willya?[1/27/08 It's working already! Within days of writing a draft of this article, MacSpeech announced they have ported the Dragon NaturallySpeaking engine to the Mac with a product called Dictate! I can't wait. I currently use NaturallySpeaking on WinXP within Parallels on a MacBook Pro, channeling input to the Mac side of my Mac using TightVNC on the Windows side and Vine Server 2.2 on the Mac side. It works really well, and I depend on it. But it's memory-intensive and cumbersome. A Mac-native solution will be most welcome.]
2. Put a real second mouse button on MacsIn the mid-80s, I used a three button mouse on Sun workstations. It was a scourge of usability. There was no standardization of which button should do what. The user was left to flounder, learning and relearning button definitions across applications.In that climate, it was refreshing for Apple to pronounce, “let there be but one button.” One button, no ambiguity. If you wanted a second action you could double click. Advanced users could Option-click or Shift-click. (Or Shift-Option-click. Usable indeed!)

   Later, Microsoft introduced a second button, But they were careful to declare a clear and unwavering mandate: “Let there be a second mouse button, and let it be used only for contextual menus.” It has been an unqualified success. Every app uses it. Even your proverbial mom knows how to right-click to get options on things. Even on the Mac, support for second mouse button is ingrained in every serious app.

   Apple seems to agree: Mac OS X, the iLife and iWork apps fully support the second mouse button.

   The only thing missing is an actual second button on Apple mice and laptop trackpads. It’s as if Steve Jobs himself is petulantly holding out on his 20-year-old pronouncement out of sheer stubbornness. The only Apple-branded bone we’ve been tossed is an invisible, barely functioning fake second mouse button on the Mighty Mouse that requires that you lift your fingers off the left part of the mouse in order for it to register a right button click.

   A third-party mouse with a proper second button therefore remains a required purchase with any Mac. Laptop users are still out of luck. It is a point of confusion and an ongoing barrier for Windows users who would otherwise switch to the mac.

   Apple is a well-known button hata and we hope it gets over it in 2008.

   [1/27/08 The signs on this one are not good; Apple looks like it's going to use multitouch trackpad gestures to get around having to desecrate its laptops with a second physical button. Maybe that will work, but I'm skeptical, based on bad experience with gestures on Powerbooks]

3. Put a real, physical keyboard on the iPhoneWe are evolved to sense things by touch, not just by sight. Tactile, haptic user interfaces make use of that faculty.On-screen keyboards require much more user attention than physical keyboard. The user must look not just at the text field but at the keyboard. The user cannot trust that a keypress will be interpreted correctly like a real button and must therefore verify what has been entered. It’s a “type->verify->proceed” mental loop instead of a more efficient “type->proceed” loop you use when you can unequivocally trust that a key press gave you what you expected. Finally, keyboards with real buttons you can feel are easier, faster, and more gratifying to use. Apple, please get over the buttonphobia. Stop trying to be clever with the workarounds and put a proper keyboard on the next iPhone.

   [Update 4/24/09 - Apple has said "emphatically" that it does not believe in fixed keypads for phones.  This either means that they aren't going to do it, or they aren't yet ready to show their fixed keypad for the iPhone.]

4. Put physical playback and volume controls on music devicesThere are very few universally-applicable UI principles. Almost all have contingencies and caveats. The only safe answer you can give to a general UI questions is, “It Depends.”But there is a solid, generally applicable principle that you could teach a monkey: identify and streamline the most common and frequent tasks.

   My first Sony Walkman cassette player got this right in 1979: I could adjust the volume and pause the music instantly, without looking, without changing modes, without unlocking anything, without even removing it from a belt clip. Yet most iPods are horribly modal. Turning down the volume on my current iPod requires pulling it out of the pocket, unlocking it, looking at it, turning the click wheel, locking it again and putting it back in my pocket. As I have pointed out, this makes the iPod touch flawed as a music player. So please, Apple, in 2008, put the volume and playback controls physical, pressable buttons that you can feel.

5. Stop the bouncingOn the Mac, icons of applications which require your attention bounce. And bounce. And bounce. Even if you’re in the middle of something else. They clamor for your attention like a needy child. Instead, icons should bounce once or twice and then stop. If they still require your attention, they may step forward from the dock, peeking out a little bit until a moment befitting the user.
6. Cars should stop self-destructingHow many products can you name, that you rely on for your life that self-destruct when the user makes a minor error? This is what happens when you accidently walk away from most cars with the dome light or headlights on. The car will dutifully shine that light all night long until your battery is dead and the car is no longer operable, leaving you stranded.In 2008, at this point in human history, all cars should be smart enough to know never to allow the battery level to get below what is needed to start and recharge itself. This should be a national safety requirement.
7. Allow graphics to be copied and pasted into web forms; allow files to be dragged inBlogging apps, SaaS apps like Google Docs, any webform requring a photo: all of these require that you provide files. Unfortunately you cannot interact with a web browser as you can with regular apps and the desktop. You cannot copy and paste images one application into a web app. And you cannot drag one or a dozen files from the desktop into an upload area. Users must contend with a cumbersome file open dialog, and do so repeatedly to upload multiple files. These facilities are needed now to upload images in many web apps, and they will be needed for evermore in RIAs and SaaS apps.  [Update 11/9/09 I was extremely surprised to discover that dragging a photo from my desktop into a Google Wave pane accepted the upload elegantly.  How'd they do that?!  Turns out it was Google Gears at work, the offline extension that was created to let you work with your web apps when you had no connectivity.]
8. Cell phone service with the clarity of VoIP and the low latency of landlinesCell phone service sucks. It has always sucked and so we take for granted its suckitude. But it doesn’t have to suck. There are two key problems: latency and audio quality. Latency is the delay from when you say something to when your friend hears it. You can get a sense of how bad it is by having both parties clap on the count of three. Latency affects cellphone service and VoIP and makes for awkward conversations. Either you work out a telegraphic protocol with clear, unnatural pauses to clear the air, or you talk over one another clumsily. Latency doesn’t have to suck so badly: it is negligible on old fashioned landline service, so it should be possible with cellphone communications.The other problem is audio quality of phone calls. You don’t know what you have been missing all along until you participate in a VoIP call using headphones. The other person sounds like they are right next to you. Puhs, buhs and duhs are clearly distinguishable, as are v’s and f’s. It’s wonderful. This is a mere matter of bandwidth and it should be solvable, not just for mobile phones but for landline phones as well.  [Update 11/9/09 As of September 2009, "France Télécom has become the first mobile operator to transmit voice calls and audio in high definition, part of an effort by telecommunications companies to improve the quality of cellphone conversations."  h/t Steve Portigal]

   How many more years must pass before we have clear, instant, reliable voice communications? I hereby wish for someone to do something about it in 2008. We have HDTV; the time is ripe for HD phone service.

9. Bring back OpenDoc

OpenDoc was killed ten years ago, but the idea of mixing and matching components of applications has always made sense. I want to be able to put an OmniGraffle chart in a Pages document or a Numbers table in Stone Create. PenPoint did it pretty well in 1991, Microsoft botched it (with OLE), integrated apps like ClarisWorks approximated it, and some ISVs have been pushing the ball forward with LinkBack. But it is still not yet a robust, well supported standard. In 2008 I wish a proper standard and a workable cross-platform technology would emerge for embedding components of apps in other apps.

10. Make it impossible to leave an ATM without your card and your cash.My Washington Mutual ATM seems designed to want you to leave your card behind: after it gives you your money, but before it gives you your card, it throws up a full screen ad for several seconds. You’ve got your money, the message it’s sending you is that your transaction is over. You start walking away, and if you’re lucky, you realize that you don’t yet have your card. I saved myself several times but one day it happened to me and I left without my card. When I returned to the bank later the teller told me that this happens several times a week.It’s not terribly difficult UI design problem, and it’s amazing that it persists after twenty years of ATMs. The solution is to withhold all three items, card, cash and receipt, until all three are ready, and spit them all out at once. The best design I saw was years ago in Tokyo, where the three slots where together and you could grab all elements at once. Please, everyone who works at a bank: in 2008, make it impossible to leave without your card.

That concludes my top 10 UI wish list for 2008. Let’s check in again next year to see what has been fixed.

[Readers: if you know anyone involved with any of these products, please send them a link to this article. It's: http://stealthisidea.com/articles/2008-ui-wishes]

Postal codes are efficient and precise. The machine knows what you mean when you tell it a zip code, often better than if you try and enter the city or state name correctly.

Some enlightened e-commerce web sites know this, and ask for your zip code first, using it to pre-populate the city and state field. This saves you time and reduces errors.

So here is a modest design to steal for Personal Information Managers like Mac OS X’s Address Book or Microsoft Outlook: how about letting the user tab over to the zip field, enter 94107, and have it fill in “San Francisco” and “California” for you?

Fringale is wonderful, by the way. Check it out, but make a reservation.

[Readers, do any desktop PIMs look up city & state by zip code yet?]