Posted on Sunday 31 July 2005 - Popularity: 10%
Why does the standard Apple mouse only have one button? Nah, it’s not because Apple could save money that way, it’s because minimalism often is a very important feature. Just because you can easily add an additional feature to a product, doesent mean you should. Sometimes less is actualy more. For example by not adding a second mouse-button you force the application user interface designers to think really hard about how they approach the design of their UI as there simple is no easy way to add tons of features. You actually force them to think about which features of their applications are important and how all the features should be organized.
Minimalism can have other effects as well. For example by not including a screen to the iPod shuffle, Apple forced the buyers of the product to experience music in a completely different way as usual. Or the way they designed AirPort Express, a very minimalistic design, that ended in a product that is small and very simple to use.
Now of course, like with everything else, minimalism is not a feature that should be applied to everything just because it’s trendy to do so, it should be applied because it improves the product, anyway if it’s software, hardware or both.
Fredi
July 31st, 2005 at 10:57 pm
I’m with you on the mouse and airport express thing, but don’t you think the ipod shuffle is overhyped? I mean, Apple really excells in making things look waaay more attractive than they really are, and shuffle is a cool feature but also works on my normal ipod, and other mp3 players for about 3 years. Tell me one company that could market the feature “shuffle” in such a way that millions of people just go crazy and buy the thing without a bit of thinking
August 1st, 2005 at 12:32 am
I actualy don’t have the shuffle, but for my mountain-bike “trainings” it would be almost perfect. Small, light and it plays music. There’s no way I could look at a display anyway and for those moments I would actually want a display, 512MB or 1GB wouldn’t be enough, than the only solution would be a big iPod anyway.
And about the marketing … of course they use it to the extreme, but that’s what marketing has to do, it’s their job and they do it damn well. (I did actualy learn advertisement psychology for one year)
Fredi
August 2nd, 2005 at 6:56 pm
What’s that squeeking noise? Here comes Mighty Mouse!
August 3rd, 2005 at 2:23 pm
[…] Just a few days ago I’ve talked about reasons why Apple is still using a one button mouse. Yesterday they released a new mouse that at first looks and acts like the usual one button mouse with a small scroll wheel on top of it, but after a second look the new mouse is much more. Not only is there now a 360° scroll wheel, squeeze functionality and new “virtual” buttons, the mouse is completely integrated into important Tiger features and fully configurable. […]