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Some specs matter; the problem is that they don't present their strengths clearly or they dilute it with meaningless ones. I could send a soccer mom to a store

by libria 15y ago

Some specs matter; the problem is that they don't present their strengths clearly or they dilute it with meaningless ones. I could send a soccer mom to a store and tell her to prefer an SSD over 4200 RPM, i7 over Atom, 4GB RAM over 512MB. She doesn't know what these are, but she does know which one is better, the same way she'd know that a V6 is more jumpy than a 4-cylinder. (edit, had RAM specs swapped)

ugh 15y ago
Specs are an awful proxy. Specs do matter insofar as they impact user experience. That relation, however, is not linear. Diminishing returns are very common and there are also discontinuities. Also, there are tradeoffs to consider: noise, temperature, weight, size, speed, battery, price, software … You can’t have it all. That’s just not an option. Specs are an implementation detail. They matter, sure, but the average consumer shouldn’t try and judge products based on them. That’s destined to fail. They should look at user experience and tradeoffs. Companies and reviewers should try to translate the specs that were used to implement tradeoffs into user experience. Who is this device good for? What tradeoffs does it try to pick? Does it do a good job at that? That’s what matters.
- jiggy2011 15y ago
  The problem with doing that is it would require very comprehensive reviews or for customers to very thoroughly try out all products before purchase. For example if a new product is launched on the market and it appears to be cheap but you know that it has a Fast Quad Core CPU and decent video hardware , you already know in a relatively small amount of text that it will be good for video editing , gaming and various other tasks. If it only has a 300Mhz CPU you already know that it will not be good for any of these tasks and you can confidently avoid it. As another example I remember years ago seeing computer adverts which would attempt to simplying their specs with bylines such as "Family Computer" , "Small business computer" , "Games Computer" etc. What if you want a PC for use by all the family for homework/internet etc but the oldest child happens to be an avid WoW/COD Player and Dad plans to use it to prepare accounts for his small retail business?
  - ugh 15y ago
    It’s not so hard, really. There are a very limited number of use cases, a limited number of tradeoffs. A long list of specs is much worse than just writing “This machine is great if you need a lot of power for video editing and rendering and other creative tasks. It is, however, correspondingly noisy, hot and big, not a very good fit for mobile use or for anyone who needs a quiet computer.” That’s so much more helpful. Specs are code in comparison. Specs confuse, specs frighten, specs suck. They force consumers to figure out the tradeoffs that stand behind them. That’s too much work.
    - jiggy2011 15y ago
      Not necessarily , the specs do confuse but that is mainly because the computer market as it is at the moment is confusing. Just to pick on the example you used, let's say I want to write a novel and create a flyer for a local charity event. These are "creative tasks" how do I know if this computer will be able to do that, do I really need a $2000 Mac Pro for these? It is big, but how big? Will it fit into the cupboard next to my desk? Computers have a huge number of use cases that will continue to grow rather than decline, listing the suitability of a computer for each one of these would take far too much space in a brochure if it didn't computer manufacturers would have been marketing this way already. (Edited for reply to next post) I think my point is that it would be very difficult , almost impossible to write comprehensive reviews without any specifications to work from, especially brochure/advetising which needs to be very short. Essentially a good spec is the normalization of a description of it's suitability for different use cases. For example a computer which can run Angry Birds happily but not Call of Duty MW3 at all.. Would you describe this as a "poor games computer"? If all I want to play is Angry Birds (and similar games) then it may be a fantastic games computer , if I want to run COD then it isn't a suitable games computer at all.. At least a spec listing allows me to look at the minimum requirements of the software I want to run and know whether it is suitable or not. Video rigs would be overpowered for other work, but we only know that because we understand the requirements of video editing on a computers hardware. A layman will not necessarily know this but they will know that their computer meets the recommended requirements for Microsoft Word and Publisher but not for Final Cut Pro because it "doesn't contain enough ghz".
sliverstorm 15y ago
a V6 is more jumpy than a 4-cylinder What?

by libria 15y ago

ugh 15y ago

Specs are an awful proxy. Specs do matter insofar as they impact user experience. That relation, however, is not linear. Diminishing returns are very common and there are also discontinuities. Also, there are tradeoffs to consider: noise, temperature, weight, size, speed, battery, price, software … You can’t have it all. That’s just not an option. Specs are an implementation detail. They matter, sure, but the average consumer shouldn’t try and judge products based on them. That’s destined to fail. They should look at user experience and tradeoffs. Companies and reviewers should try to translate the specs that were used to implement tradeoffs into user experience. Who is this device good for? What tradeoffs does it try to pick? Does it do a good job at that? That’s what matters.

jiggy2011 15y ago
The problem with doing that is it would require very comprehensive reviews or for customers to very thoroughly try out all products before purchase. For example if a new product is launched on the market and it appears to be cheap but you know that it has a Fast Quad Core CPU and decent video hardware , you already know in a relatively small amount of text that it will be good for video editing , gaming and various other tasks. If it only has a 300Mhz CPU you already know that it will not be good for any of these tasks and you can confidently avoid it. As another example I remember years ago seeing computer adverts which would attempt to simplying their specs with bylines such as "Family Computer" , "Small business computer" , "Games Computer" etc. What if you want a PC for use by all the family for homework/internet etc but the oldest child happens to be an avid WoW/COD Player and Dad plans to use it to prepare accounts for his small retail business?
- ugh 15y ago
  It’s not so hard, really. There are a very limited number of use cases, a limited number of tradeoffs. A long list of specs is much worse than just writing “This machine is great if you need a lot of power for video editing and rendering and other creative tasks. It is, however, correspondingly noisy, hot and big, not a very good fit for mobile use or for anyone who needs a quiet computer.” That’s so much more helpful. Specs are code in comparison. Specs confuse, specs frighten, specs suck. They force consumers to figure out the tradeoffs that stand behind them. That’s too much work.
  - jiggy2011 15y ago
    Not necessarily , the specs do confuse but that is mainly because the computer market as it is at the moment is confusing. Just to pick on the example you used, let's say I want to write a novel and create a flyer for a local charity event. These are "creative tasks" how do I know if this computer will be able to do that, do I really need a $2000 Mac Pro for these? It is big, but how big? Will it fit into the cupboard next to my desk? Computers have a huge number of use cases that will continue to grow rather than decline, listing the suitability of a computer for each one of these would take far too much space in a brochure if it didn't computer manufacturers would have been marketing this way already. (Edited for reply to next post) I think my point is that it would be very difficult , almost impossible to write comprehensive reviews without any specifications to work from, especially brochure/advetising which needs to be very short. Essentially a good spec is the normalization of a description of it's suitability for different use cases. For example a computer which can run Angry Birds happily but not Call of Duty MW3 at all.. Would you describe this as a "poor games computer"? If all I want to play is Angry Birds (and similar games) then it may be a fantastic games computer , if I want to run COD then it isn't a suitable games computer at all.. At least a spec listing allows me to look at the minimum requirements of the software I want to run and know whether it is suitable or not. Video rigs would be overpowered for other work, but we only know that because we understand the requirements of video editing on a computers hardware. A layman will not necessarily know this but they will know that their computer meets the recommended requirements for Microsoft Word and Publisher but not for Final Cut Pro because it "doesn't contain enough ghz".

sliverstorm 15y ago

a V6 is more jumpy than a 4-cylinder What?