thomas fitzgerald.net

Engadget have posted a comprehensive video of Microsoft’s Zune Player’s interface. My initial thoughts are that although it looks pretty slick with the transitions and animations between menus, it also seems somewhat confusing and complicated. Also, having to constantly rotate the player seems somewhat silly. Also too, I can’t see how a d-pad (yes that big control wheel on the front of the zune is not in fact a wheel, but a d-pad made to look look a wheel) can give as a tactile a representation of the interface like a wheel would have.

There are some typical Microsoft stupid things about this too, like wireless on by default and the ability for others to see what you’re doing, listening too etc unless you go in and turn it off - which is fine for geek users but the average joe won’t know it’s there. It’s interesting to read the comments too, to see how easily people are wowed by a flashy cluttered interface without giving any thought to the functionality, and unfortunately that flashiness will win over a lot of people. It does look terribly like a cell phone though. It has that “how many buttons do I have to push to do what I want to do” problem that many modern phones seem to have.

What ever your feelings on Zune it’s a good, thorough review by Engadget.