[Sigia-l] Commercial Impact of a Bad User Interface?

[Listera]

Jonathan Baker-Bates:

> And I had a thought. Are there any examples of significant businesses
> that have (or might have) gone to the wall due to a user interface being
> badly designed?

Don't know about going out of business, but if you want to provide a stark
contrast between great and atrocious UI design:

1.  Ask your client what his favorite song/band is.
2.  Ask them to double click iTunes, locate it and purchase it with a single
click (it'll cost you $.99 :-)
3.  Ask them to double click Azureus [1] and record their faces on video for
posterity. If they seem confused, ask them to play around the app a bit and
click on whatever they like. Watch their befuddlement surge.
4.  While you're at it, you could compare iTunes to pretty much any other
music downloading site, especially the first version of Sony's attempt,
BestBuy, etc.
5.  For a bonus, ask your client if iPod's phenomenal and continuing success
(in dollar terms alone) had anything to do with its unmatched UI. Or why
despite all odds and trade rags' punditry people overwhelmingly prefer the
iPod over the Dell offering.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba 

[1] It's a multiplatform, Java app for BitTorrent file-sharing. It's an
incredibly powerful and customizable app buried under one of the worst UIs
ever designed by homo sapiens.

<http://azureus.sourceforge.net/screenshots_v2.php>