HCI: Questionable Interfaces
I am a big fan of wireless earbuds because they allow me to listen to music without having to have my phone on me at all times. With that being said, I do have some grievances with their design. I currently use JLAB Go Air Pop to listen to music. They do a great job for budget earbuds with music quality and connectivity, however, some of the touch functionalities are not the best. In order to change different settings such as volume, listening quality, and songs, you need to use the side of the earbuds. Each setting has a different tap pattern. My problem is if I accidentally bump the side of an earbud, it might pause the song or skip the song entirely. This has led to some frustration with using my earbuds. If I were to make some design changes, I would maybe have a button to press on the side of the earbuds. That way you couldn’t accidentally touch the earbuds and change the setting, while allowing for a more minimalistic look to them.
Another interface I have gripes with is Netflix. When I am scrolling to find a show on Netflix, if I stay too long on an icon, there is a preview that is played. While this can be good at certain times, it often plays over the synopsis that I was trying to read. This has led to miscommunications with my family since we can’t her over the loud preview. Going forward, I would maybe increase the time before the preview starts, or maybe allow the user to click on the preview