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Not at all. It's necessary detail for the story to make sense, and of course Garmin is quite proud that their device played a role in saving a life. I know wha
by myself248 4y ago
Not at all. It's necessary detail for the story to make sense, and of course Garmin is quite proud that their device played a role in saving a life.
I know what they mean about ease of use, too. In the early 2000's I had a Garmin eTrex GPS receiver, the little translucent green one. Did a lot of hiking and geocaching with it, hooked it to my laptop for wardriving, etc. And everything I ever asked it to do was so easy -- there was no touchscreen and the click-stick only had five "buttons", but the UI was just profoundly intuitive.
I said at the time that if Garmin ever made a cellphone (this was pre-smartphone and every phone reinvented its own craptastic UI), I'd buy one in a heartbeat. Of course they did release some Garmin-branded phones later, well into the Android era, and the UI is generic Android. So much for that, and more's the pity.
But I believe their marine instruments retain some of that old-fashioned intuition, so anyone could just walk up and figure out the interface. And that plays a role in the story, so it's absolutely relevant to mention.
- nanidin 4y agoThe nuvifone was based on embedded Linux and the UI was implemented in a mix of Qt and possibly Tcl/Tk. I’m not sure how much Android played into things, but there was definitely inspiration from the iPhone. It was the first phone Garmin put out.
- akiselev 4y agoThere’s UX spillover from their avionics division, which has indirect funding via NTSB recommending/mandating improvements after accidents
- TheRealPomax 4y agoMan, if you can figure out a Garmin just by walking up to one and figuring out the interface, you have several more degrees than most people. If you know one, you know most of the others, but if you know none, and you don't have the manual, those things are confusing af.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]