What is Apple's least ergonomic design?

[Shake 'n' Bake]

I was just moving a HDD to the Zip drive slot on my Power Mac G4 Digital Audio. The drive sled is a really great idea on paper, but not in practice.

So, I read the "Replacing Zip Drive" article from the KB.

Then I tried to take sled out, but the shiny guard on the back of the optical drive got stuck. So I ripped it out finally and the HDD slotted in easily enough. Then I found out that the slave bit of the power cable (P6) wouldn't work because it was too short, so I pulled up P5, and connected it. Finally, I found out that the IDE cable wouldn't work because my HDD's connecter was on the left, and the optical drive's was on the right. And all this in a space so cramped I could barley fit my hand in.

I pulled out the whole sled and removed the HDD, and put the sled back and put the HDD back. I reassembled everything, and it all works.

That's the least ergonomically designed computer I've ever worked on.

What do you think Apple's least ergonomic design is?

And what is the P5 cable for?

[Cindori]

Mighty mouse.



-end of thread-

[grue]

Mighty mouse.



-end of thread-

From a user perspective I'd say that's up there.

From a service perspective, whoever designed the internals on the 12" PowerBook needs to die horribly.

[Tallest Skil]

Mighty mouse.
-end of thread-

Current least or overall least?

If overall...

PUCK MOUSE

/thread

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Mighty mouse.



-end of thread-

I like the Mighty Mouse, but that's just me.

Current least or overall least?

If overall...

PUCK MOUSE

/thread

The puck mouse looks awesome, but I agree, is hard to use, especially for the macro-handed.

[dsnort]

Have to second the Puck Mouse.

Never had many issues with the ergonomics of the Mighty Mouse. Functionality? Now, that's a different story!

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Have to second the Puck Mouse.

Never had many issues with the ergonomics of the Mighty Mouse. Functionality? Now, that's a different story!

When ever I use my puck mouse, my fingers get sucked under it.

But what's wrong with the functionality of the MM?

[macz1]

I did't dislike the form of the puck mouse which came with my G4, I used it about five years then I began to miss a right button and the lack of optical sensor (damn ball)... The mighty mouse however was immediately replaced by a LX3 from Logitech. I really don't like it.

[TheReef]

I was just moving a HDD to the Zip drive slot on my Power Mac G4 Digital Audio. The drive sled is a really great idea on paper, but not in practice.

Yes, I did the same thing, a very difficult job that one!

I find the mighty mouse pretty conformable - once I disabled right click that is, but it's scroll ball is absolutely useless once it gets clogged, with no easy way to clean it.

The puck mouse on the other hand just made computing terrible.


To upgrade anything in the iMac/eMac/laptops is pretty epic as well.

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Yes, I did the same thing, very difficult job that!

I find the mighty mouse pretty conformable - once I disabled right click that is, but it's scroll ball is absolutely useless once it gets clogged, with no easy way to clean it.

The puck mouse on the other hand just made computing terrible.

To clean the mighty mouse:

1. Put a thick mouse pad on your desk.

2. Put a piece of paper on that.

3. Roll MM scroll ball on that paper.

[TheReef]

To clean the mighty mouse:

1. Put a thick mouse pad on your desk.

2. Put a piece of paper on that.

3. Roll MM scroll ball on that paper.

That does work but the ball never gets back to it's original traction. :(

It was a great time when ball mice were superseded by opticals, it's annoying how Apple the "innovative company" have decided to use balls again.

[bozz2006]

I hate that the nice rounded edges on the top of the 4th gen ipod were replaced by the razor sharp edges on the 5th gen. Yeah, I know they wanted a bigger screen for videos, but I still don't know how anyone can, or would want to, watch videos on a screen that small. gives me a tension headache even thinking about it (OK, not quite, but you know what I'm saying)

[Shake 'n' Bake]

On long trips, I watch videos on my nano 3G. It isn't too bad.

[H. Flower]

Mice are their worst failure.

[gugucom]

If you finally decide to shell out serious money you end up in the Mac Pro and Power Mac line. You would assume that form follows function and the Apple design would impress you from a service point to no end.

Far cry from reality. There are some very clever features but inevitably Apple screwed up every hig tech tower they ever launched from a servicebility point of view.

On the G5 Power Mac they had the hard disks designed like gobbledygook. The connectors would never fit and getting the bastards to slide into the slots was evil.

Every time you were fitting an expansion card to the PM you would loose a fixing screw in the guts of the machine where it could potentially shortcut the logic board.

on the Mac Pro they fixed those problems nicely but immediately created other problems worthy of the same cursing you heard from PM customers.

To lay cables from the ODD drive bays to PCIe is almost impossible although you frequently need to wire up between the two parts.

And to remove the front fan unit is a task close to dismanteling a nuclear reactor in complication.

Other than that the machines are fine. Just my 2 ct on ergonomy.

[fun173]

ibook clam mouse button, it takes to little pressure to be clicked

[bozz2006]

And to remove the front fan unit is a task close to dismanteling a nuclear reactor in complication.

all you have to do is remove one screw and pull the thing out.

[TheStrudel]

Puck mouse, without a doubt. Though at one of my workplaces, we did have an ancient imac still running. Computer was much better than the mouse, though of course primitive and impossible to upgrade by modern standards.

[grue]

all you have to do is remove one screw and pull the thing out.

Two actually. One horizontal, and one vertical.

[Genghis Khan]

Have to second the Puck Mouse.

Never had many issues with the ergonomics of the Mighty Mouse. Functionality? Now, that's a different story!

+1

The Mighty Mouse is awesome, apart from the scroll-ball. I've had 3, and they all become useless beyond cleaning after a couple of weeks. My most recent one has lasted almost 2 months now because I'm afraid to use it...

[LurchNC]

Mighty Mouse

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Ergonomics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics) have nothing to do with serviceability...

1. Safety - Medicine bottles: The print on them could be larger so that a sick person who may have bad vision (due to sinuses, etc.) can more easily see the dosages and label. Ergonomics could design the print style, color and size for optimal viewing.
2. Comfort - Alarm clock display: Some displays are harshly bright, drawing one’s eye to the light when surroundings are dark. Ergonomic principles could re-design this based on contrast principles.
3. Ease of use - Street Signs: In a strange area, many times it is difficult to spot street signs. This could be addressed with the principles of visual detection in ergonomics.
4. Productivity/performance - HD TV: The sound on HD TV is much lower than regular TV. So when you switch from HD to regular, the volume increases dramatically. Ergonomics recognizes that this difference in decibel level creates a difference in loudness and hurts human ears and this could be solved by evening out the decibel levels.
5. Aesthetics - the look and feel of the object, the user experience.




I'll agree with Skil, I used a puck mouse in middle school. It was horrible. A close second is the mighty mouse. Followed by.... well any mouse Apple has made. WTF Apple! Apple practically (but not really) invented the mouse and they have yet to make a good one.

[Brien]

The puck mouse.

[TinHead88]

The puck mouse gets my vote too. Absolutely silly design.
I have been using the mighty mouse for over a year now and only had to clean it once. I don't understand how you could get it so dirty in a matter of weeks. I cleaned mine at the first sign of trouble (i felt some slight bumps when using the scrollball). If you ignore this and let it get built up until the scrolling doesn't work anymore then it will be much harder to get the gunk out of there. I have managed to fix my sisters MM which she used until it wouldn't scroll anymore and it was quite difficult to get that dirt out. I had to thoroughly soak the ball in methylated spirits and rub it on a cloth for quite a while, but it works just fine again now.
Maybe it would help if the MM would come with instructions to regularly clean the scrollball.

[grue]

Ergonomics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics) have nothing to do with serviceability...


I was going to bring it up, but this is a forum where people regularly cannot effectively differentiate between "you're" and "your", or "there" and "their"… so I gave up before I started :D

[Cynicalone]

Functionally the mighty mouse is a pile of junk. Ergonomically it is fine but after extended use the scroll ball will die a quick death.

But really any mouse designed by Apple is a failure.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

I was going to bring it up, but this is a forum where people regularly cannot effectively differentiate between "you're" and "your", or "there" and "their"… so I gave up before I started :D
I was so confused when I started reading this thread. I'm glad someone else knows what ergonomic means! With how often the ergonomics of Apple products are brought up I would expect most people on the forum to know the meaning.

[macuserx86]

From a user perspective I'd say that's up there.

From a service perspective, whoever designed the internals on the 12" PowerBook needs to die horribly.

I feel you there mate. A simple HDD replacement turned into a ridiculous escapade. I ran out of food halfway through, and I had to eat my own arm, which in hindsight just exacerbated the difficulty further.

[5DollaFootlong]

the only reason i use a mighty mouse is because it matches my keyboard and macbook. For $50, i could pick up a sexy Logitech VX Nano and then some.

whooops, sorry in my last post i sort of missed the point of the OP. the mighty mouse is ergonomically unstable. As far as computers go, I have only owned a 2008 macbook white and 2008 aluminum macbook, so those seem like very well built machines

[awmazz]

Least ergonomic - the 21" CRT Studio Display. Great design but a back-breaker lifting it.

Ugliest - Imagewriter I. Ironically also one of Apple's most popular selling products.

Least serviceable - Apple 30" Cinema Display.

[grue]

I was so confused when I started reading this thread. I'm glad someone else knows what ergonomic means! With how often the ergonomics of Apple products are brought up I would expect most people on the forum to know the meaning.

Yeah, my degrees are actually in psychology, specializing in human/machine interaction. I just avoid the subject when I'm on here :D

In terms of pure ergonomics though, the Mighty Mouse is absolutely shocking when it comes to a lot of things.

So are the window close/minimize/maximize buttons in OS X, for that matter.

Functionally the mighty mouse is a pile of junk. Ergonomically it is fine but after extended use the scroll ball will die a quick death.

But really any mouse designed by Apple is a failure.


Actually, the side buttons are pretty horrible from an ergonomic perspective, and the lack of clear differentiation between the boundaries for right and left click is awful too.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

So are the window close/minimize/maximize buttons in OS X, for that matter.
Really? I always wondered why OS X does it different from Windows and Linux, which have the buttons on the right. Does it really make that much of a difference? (I'm left handed, so maybe I'm missing something)

[grue]

really? I always wondered why Windows and Linux have the buttons on the right. Is there really that much of a difference? (I'm left handed, so maybe I'm missing something)



It's not actually the side they're on: It's the fact that they're the same shape and there's no clear indication of what the hell they actually do for new users, until you mouse over them. Worse yet, if you're red/green colour blind…

[awmazz]

Really? I always wondered why OS X does it different from Windows and Linux, which have the buttons on the right. Does it really make that much of a difference? (I'm left handed, so maybe I'm missing something)

Microsoft needed to avoid lawsuits for copying, hence the menu bar on the bottom, desktop icons on the left, window buttons on the right, squares instead of circles, the trash called recycle etc. No ergonomic reasons for the often exact opposite difference in Windows at all, just legal reasons.

[designgeek]

I love my uMBP but the track pad doesn't click at the top and is loud thus necessitating tap-to-click which = epic fail. The whole thing soon becomes a nightmare with it deciding that I'm always dragging and I can't change the timing so I end up with a stress rash or two...

I've never had a problem with a MM and I only used the puck as a kid so I didn't really have any issues with it.

[remmy]

Really hated using the puck mouse and the MM. To be honest I have disliked all of Apple's mice.

Do wish it was a bit easier to change the HD on the laptops though.

[student_trap]

love the appleprooptical mouse,love the BT mightymouse (if you have applecare they replace themover and over and over for free so the ball gunking up after 6months or so isn't a biggie).

Hate the puck mouse.

5th gen ipod was never as good as the 3rd or 4th gens, while the new shuffle looks like a real step down usability-wise compared to the 2nd gen.

sharp edges of the macbooks also isn't great.

In the end though, all these things become pretty trivial when placed against the positive aspects of each respective product (perhaps with the exception of the new shuffle).

[NoNameBrand]

Hated the puck mouse. I thought the Apple Pro Optical mouse was wonderful for what it was (a one-buttoned mouse), as you can hold it a number of different ways, and it was easy to pick up while clicking it. The Mighty-Mouse has ruined what was good about it by adding the dodads.

The razor-sharp corner on the front of the plastic MacBooks was a pain.

[grue]

love the appleprooptical mouse,love the BT mightymouse (if you have applecare they replace themover and over and over for free so the ball gunking up after 6months or so isn't a biggie).



Know what's better? Having a mouse that doesn't suck like a sorority girl on a Friday night.

[Sambo110]

I like the buttons being up the top left, I am right handed and have the mouse angled slight to the left, so it is easier to move left than right.

[snouter]

Have to second the Puck Mouse.

Mighty Mouse just sucks. Puck mouse was downright unusable.

[brad.c]

I was so confused when I started reading this thread. I'm glad someone else knows what ergonomic means! With how often the ergonomics of Apple products are brought up I would expect most people on the forum to know the meaning.

I have to admit, a heart-beat after I thought of the puck mouse, I did think of the 840AV where you had to disconnect the nubus cards and remove the motherboard to install the ram. Again, not user ergonomics per se, until you need to upgrade a whole studios worth of workstations at once. My wrists hurt afterwards. Anybody do the same on a number of Mac Mini's at once?

And I have to admit I love my BT Mighty Mouse.

[student_trap]

And I have to admit I love my BT Mighty Mouse.

Great to know that i'm not the only one

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Ergonomics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics) have nothing to do with serviceability...





I'll agree with Skil, I used a puck mouse in middle school. It was horrible. A close second is the mighty mouse. Followed by.... well any mouse Apple has made. WTF Apple! Apple practically (but not really) invented the mouse and they have yet to make a good one.

Sure it does. If you buy something, especially from Apple, and you want to upgrade it, you expect that it will be possible and that it won't require too much hassle.

[01jamcon]

I vote for the wired mighty mouse. It annoyed the hell out of me because the cable was just 3-4 inches too short to work with the cable stretching round the back of my macbook. Actually come to think of it, I don't see why all the Apple laptops without a right-sided usb port shouldn't be put up as the least ergonomic, with the majority of the world's population being right handed, it should make sense to put the usb ports on the right side, right? :D

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Sure it does. If you buy something, especially from Apple, and you want to upgrade it, you expect that it will be possible and that it won't require too much hassle.

well that's all fine and dandy, but it still has absolutely nothing to do with ergonomics.

[Shake 'n' Bake]

well that's all fine and dandy, but it still has absolutely nothing to do with ergonomics.

From Apple's dictionary:

ergonomic |ərgəˈnämik|
adjective
(esp. of workplace design) intended to provide optimum comfort and to avoid stress or injury.

I was highly stressed and injured after I finished with the thing.