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What is Apple's least ergonomic design?

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.
 
grue said:
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
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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.
 
grue said:
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.
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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.
 
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
 
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.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
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.
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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.

Cynicalone said:
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.
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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.
 
grue said:
So are the window close/minimize/maximize buttons in OS X, for that matter.
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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)
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
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)
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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…
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
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)
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
student_trap said:
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).
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Know what's better? Having a mouse that doesn't suck like a sorority girl on a Friday night.
 
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.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
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.
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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.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
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.
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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.
 
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 said:
well that's all fine and dandy, but it still has absolutely nothing to do with ergonomics.
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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.
 
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