4 ms·
Users want to be able to manage user state.
by DividesByZero 14y ago
Users want to be able to manage user state.
- jpxxx 14y agoYou and I do. Regular people don't.
- DividesByZero 14y agoCan you please elaborate on this? Perhaps we have a different definition of user state.
- jpxxx 14y agoSure. Let's start with an iPad. iPads have physical state: shattered, powered, glitchiness, temperature, cover, location they're in, way in which they're being held, etc... iPads have hardware state: processor, CPU, RAM, GPU, storage available, etc iPads have software state: booted, OS version, OS mode, current app, volume, what the app is doing... iPads have user-state state: songs, contacts, high scores, the way the apps are laid out, pictures, videos, other pictures, other videos, FACEBOOK, emails, signatures... We know all of these things. An iPad is a small flat touchscreen PC with some prissy software and expensive accessories and most anyone in the tech involved world can distinguish between all of these layers and figure out what's wrong when something's wrong. For the tech uninvolved, there's no real distinction between any these states. The iPad is. The iPad is, for lack of a better word, an appliance. It is a thing they bought to do iPad. “Hey Marco, I had the iCloud put on my iPad. Now I can’t even do anything with it." It is no longer an iPad. The user-state-state is gone because of a misunderstanding and there's nothing that can be done to retrieve it. The user doesn't care how, why, whatever. iPad is not working. What Apple is doing with iCloud is removing maintenance and reducing the chances of catastrophic loss of user-state-state. They are further ahead than basically anyone at this point, and had iCloud been running on the iPad in the story, it would have been near impossible for that iPad to become a non-working iPad. It backs up all of these things: ( Purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books Photos and video in the Camera Roll Device settings App data Home screen and app organization Messages (iMessage, SMS, and MMS) Ringtones ) and quite a few more datatypes they don't advertise in a strong legal construct that allows Apple unbelievable flexibility and ability to make products that do things as expected. It is egregiously hard to delete an iCloud, even if you try. State is a service. SIAS. State As A Service. Make whatever acronym you want.
- DividesByZero 14y agoSo you're suggesting users shouldn't have control over "songs, contacts, high scores, the way the apps are laid out, pictures, videos, other pictures, other videos, FACEBOOK, emails, signatures" ?
- jpxxx 14y agoNo, I'm saying they shouldn't be responsible for where those things are or how to get them back when they aren't there anymore. Hence, "management" or "maintenance". I'm not quite sure what word I'm looking for.
- sgdesign 14y agoI sure as hell don't. I look forward to the day when everything is in DropBox/iCloud/Bitcasa/whatever and I can finally stop lugging around 2 external hard drives for backup and worrying about what would happen to my data if somebody stole my laptop.
- barlo 14y agoYour average user expects an OS update to be nothing more than new features, they don't know/expect of anything to be wiped out, or know any kind of possible data loss might occur,
- fleitz 14y agoThat's something Apple forgot in their skeuomorphic design of Notes. People expect that when they get a new notepad their old notes will still be there.
- jpxxx 14y agoI respectfully disagree. The average user has no idea what an OS is, or why you would update it. It's something they do, under instruction, because other people are doing it.
- barlo 14y agoGood point. So, in the end, a user just expects all to stay the same?
- jpxxx 14y agoYes! :) While it's delightful if iPad suddenly does new things, it's not expected.
- josephcooney 14y agoSo why are they updating at all then? If they don't expect any change (either positive or negative) why are they doing it?
- jpxxx 14y agoBecause you or I or someone like us tells them they should for a new feature. Or they're fastidious. Or they feel like they'll screw something up if they don't. Or they do so in hopes of improving a poor experience. Or they pay attention to and trust their vendor's marketing. Or they take it in for service and its done for them. But for the most part it really doesn't mean anything to the common customer.