March 13, 2009

iPod Shuffle Control Scheme

The control scheme for Apple’s new iPod Shuffle looks absurdly complicated. But it’s important to remember that not everyone will use every feature of the Shuffle. Personally, I’ve never used «fast forward,» «fast rewind» or «previous track» on any of my MP3 players. I also don’t think I’d ever have to hear the current song’s title.

So I would be down to learning

  • Click to play and pause
  • Double-click to go to next track
  • Click-and-hold until a beep sounds to switch the playlist, click again to select the current playlist or click-and-hold to go back
  • Use volume buttons for volume

I believe I would be perfectly capable of remembering these commands.

My guess is that, like me, most people will very likely only want to remember a subset of the Shuffle’s commands.

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