Let's Play "Find the UI issues in the scanner software"

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 graphicsin 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.)

Fed up with non-English speaking customer service reps

Last week my wife called me while I was at Macworld telling my that the credit card company called to tell us that our credit card number had been compromised and that we had to close the account. I waited until Tuesday to close it as I was out of town and didn't want to deal with it. I spoke to a customer service rep on Tuesday whose accent was very heavy and who didn't seem to be a fluent English speaker. She asked if I wanted new cards sent overnight; I asked if it cost more and she said no, so I said of course. Today is Thursday. No cards. I called again and spoke with another rep who was a native English speaker. After a few minutes (and him getting annoyed reading my record when he discovered a mistake), he apologized and said that the cards were sent via regular US Mail. Lovely, nothing we can do about it now except wait a few more days. Uggh.

Product Version Numbers

The normal scheme of version numbering for products seems to work for most developers. Going from 1.x.x to 1.x.x+1 is a minor bug fix; going from 1.x.x to 1.x+1.x is maybe a few new features and bug fixes. In some cases, developers only charge for 1.x.x to 2.x.x updates which makes a lot of sense to me to differentiate the products. That's how I like to do things. Today I downloaded a new version of a freeware product I was using (I was using version 1.1.2) and when I downloaded the 1.2 version, was extremely surprised to find that it was now shareware ($34). While the developers said that they would be charging in the future, a minor version number update caught me off guard. Furthermore, they didn't provide release notes on what changed, but instead on first launch, I got an alert to buy it. I poked around for a few minutes and then reverted to the freeware version. I'm not opposed to developers making money, but they should have called it 2.0 and added some additional value to it (or charged money from the beginning). I'm a bit disappointed in this, but on the flip side, it reinforces my desire to write a new application based on ReceiptWallet.

First impressions of the Garmin Training Center for the Mac

Last January, Garmin announced that they'd have a Training Center version for the Mac. That was one of the reasons I bought my Forerunner 305. Last week, they delivered (a little late). I saw a few screenshots before Macworld on the Garmin blog and posted a comment that it looked very un-Mac like just from the 3 screenshots I saw; Garmin didn't approve my comment. I guess the truth hurts.

I picked up a CD at Macworld (they're not making it available until later this month for download due to localization issues or some such nonsense; they deliver their other software as fully localized or English only; I just checked the page for the iQue 3600 and there is an English-only and an EFIGS-English, French, Italian, German, Spanish version). I loaded up the software on Sunday and my first impression was not very good. Brushed metal has to go and the main screen just doesn't look right; there is a lot of space around it. It would have been better to put the information (profile information) in preferences. The application has no drag and drop onto the icon to import files (I downloaded stuff from my MotionBased account) even though there is an import menu item. Heh folks, that is about 5 minutes of code to put it in; just add a Cocoa method:

- (BOOL)application:(NSApplication *)theApplication openFile:(NSString *)filename

And add tcx as a file extension to the info.plist file.

Next, I can't edit any of my activities. The ones I import are all coming in as Skiing instead of running. I can't sort the columns (clicking on a column highlights it), I can't turn off columns. I can, however, reorganize the columns. If I choose the Close menu item, the app quits. If I click in the column title for Activities, the sort arrow changes, but does nothing.

Right now I can't use all the maps I have for my iQue 3600, so I get a totally useless map view in the center of the screen that I can't collapse.

So, I have no idea what took Garmin so long to do this. Their program didn't take a rocket scientist to write. My first pass of ReceiptWallet took 2 weeks of almost full time work and then about another month of part time tweaking to release a solid 1.0 product. If Garmin has more than 1 person working on this full time, they should call me to fix it! The MotionBased folks said that they got the USB code for talking to the device from the Training Center developers last March (or so) to get MotionBased working on the Mac, so that leads me to believe that Garmin spent 9+ months on the user interface. Ouch.

For now, I'll stick with MotionBased; I renewed my subscription last month and it is significantly more full featured that Training Center. Granted, MotionBased is not free, but I would have paid something for a good Mac Training Center.