When Interfaces Don't Work

I've already commented on my thoughts on the Google Deskbar's user interface and human being's user interface. My comment in the last blog about the 3D Modeler interface reminded me of a recent piece of technology that also failed the interface test.

Scoble recommended Pandora... and he's absolutely right. It's just great. I use it mostly for dance music, as other types of music I prefer to hear the entire album as the artist intended, rather than single cuts. But the real problem is that it's sitting in a browser. Terrible! It needs to be a nice rich client that can sit on your desktop and persist long beyond a browser session. Does it really make sense that I want the music to stop just because I close my browser? No!
2 responses
Hmmm...I'd beg to differ on the thick client vs. browser. Why? I'm typing this on my Thinkpad at work (listening to Pandora in the background) and at home us a Mac OS X box with a big cinema display, Soundsticks (subwoofer and "stick" tweeters) that is awesome. Last night I also used it from Firefox on Linux.

I'd hate to have to have three thick clients on platforms all over the place. By the way, did a post about Pandora last night if you want to read it: http://borsch.typepad.com/ctd/2005/09/pandora_your_pe.html
You have a good point, but I'd love to think that something that was XUL/Avalon based could be just as portable and still have all the richness that a thick client can provide. Tying things this rich to the browser just doesn't seem right.