Today I received the Fujitsu ScanSnap fi-5110EOXM that I ordered (I couldn’t pass up the $100 Macworld discount and the $50 rebate). The scanner is great; it scans to PDFs and doesn’t make me look at their ugly user interface too much. However, I thought I’d point out the issues (first off I had to find the version of the software that was Intel native as the CD didn’t have it and it wasn’t readily available on their website:
- They use Command-S to bring up Settings; it should be Command-, and the menu should be labeled Preferences
- The buttons in the settings dialog are all laid out wrong. Mac applications put the OK button on the right, not the left like it is in their software
- They use low resolution graphics
in the settings dialog - They are inconsistent with the use of periods; they use them at the end of some radio buttons when they shouldn’t
- They should use sheets instead of modal dialogs for some things
- By having too many tabs, they have to put warnings in some tabs, like: “Note: JPEG is available only when “Color” is selected at [Color Mode].” If this were all on one tab, it could have automatically changed (which it actually does, but you won’t notice it until you flip tabs) and the user could see it.
- Location of saved files looks like it is an edit text field, but you can’t edit it. You have to click Browser … and choose the folder
- Browser … button has an extra space in the text
- They don’t need so many sub dialogs as they could have accomplished much of it in the main window
- Under “File name format …, they have “ex.) 2007_01_19_15_56_49.pdf” which is the example of the file name that will be generated. They could have spelled our example or done this another way; there is plenty of room
- When the scanner is off, the dock icon has a big red circle with a slash through it
For such a small application, it really has an awful looking interface. Luckily I won’t have to see it much.
Please, oh please, ask for a user interface review by Apple; they’d be more than happy to rip your application to shreds. (I’ve had a few UI reviews and got my stuff ripped apart, so I know how it feels.)