You know Kenneth. From 30 Rock. The one who’s well-meaning, goofy, clumsy, sweet and… charming? Or something not quite like that. His earnestness makes you want it all to work out for him, but you know it won’t.
My Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, is Kenneth.
Its helpfulness is enraging. There’s a bright little bring-a-ling chime that happily informs you that the battery is going to die. At least, that’s what I think it means. It reminds me despite the fact that it’s 4:13am, and that waking me means it’s in mortal danger.
Why, indeed, is the chime a peppy tune? The UX doesn’t naturally map to a dead battery. Dead battery sounds to me like slow, falling, sonorous tones. When you wake the device to see what was so very important, there’s no notification. So, I’m not even sure what the chime means.
Kill. Kill. Die. Die. Die.
Ok, I feel better.
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UPDATE 11/16/2011 – My trusty iPhone, though the battery was so dead it shut itself off at 10pm, saved enough juice to sound my wake up alarm the next morning. MY HERO!
4 comments
Chris Pearce says:
Nov 5, 2011
And… My Samsung Galaxy S phone also cheerfully tells me when it’s fully charged, so if I leave it charging beside my bed overnight without being on silent, it wakes me up!
Grigory V says:
Nov 19, 2011
Re: UPDATE 11/16/2011: Apple’s so good at making awesome things you won’t notice for a while…
Edward says:
Mar 12, 2012
Umm…is this article for real? I mean come on! I don’t wanna sound jerky jerk, but making a whole blog entrance, putting a big picture comparing android to kenneth, making it sound “interesting”, misleading you into thinking a whole comparison of what a good or bad UX the system has…. but at the end, just some whining and bitching about a chime for the battery life? you call that kind of content “UX”? this kind of reading “good user experience” for a reader??, come on,at least say something interesting…I mean, if you are just a fan of the iOS, that’s ok, but making a whole comparison to a character for just one little thing?? Why even bother to buy an andorid tablet in the first place? why not just buy an ipad and be happy? instead of wanting to complain about something so ridiculous that I guess you could fix yourself…lame post, shame on you calling yourself a ux designer… “hipster design user” I would say… =0
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not my intention to express something bad about your idea of the awful ugly bad design google made for telling you about the battery life…but seriously, be real, don’t waste a readers time that way…make a real comparison, tell the world something useful, not this crap =(
Edwin says:
Mar 8, 2013
Due to self interest in keeping my previous job intact, I waved the Android flag pretty fiercely. I was excited to get my Android tablet right when it came out. Then it sat on the table. Used it as a music player, but couldn’t find a good doc for it.
Then I got a iPad mini begrudgingly since I got a killer discount. And OMG, the UX is so much better. The one home button is essential for kids. The key apps are 10x better than the android counter parts: Facebook, Twitter, Mail. They finally nailed the switch apps gesture swipe for easy IM access. I’m no Steve Jobs fan or the walled garden that he fostered. But iPad is leaps and bounds ahead of Android Tablets.