Further iTunes CDDB Idiocy
September 9th, 2005
Categories: Interaction, OS X
Here is the dialog iTunes presents after CD information is successfully transmitted to the CDDB:
This dialog might as well be worded like this:
If iTunes cannot immediately send the CD information due to lack of a network connection or because the CDDB server is busy, it should quietly wait until a network connection becomes available or attempt to send every few minutes until it can connect to the CDDB server. The user should be able to assume that the application will perform the task the user ordered it to — no confirmation is necessary.
I’d much rather the iTunes development resources be invested in eliminating existing interaction problems like pointless and/or poorly worded dialogs than creating new visual styles.
hmmm theres something to be said for the assuring hum of a vehicle engine though.
but that hum is not a dialogue box.
On the other hand.. I can see why it’s nice to have a little note recognizing your effort (entering gracenote info) and verifying your effort has achieved something.
In some ways that note is a thank you, without building so much an emotion into the message. (or implying that the info will be actually used)
A confirmation message could be displayed in iTunes’ center LCD-like playback timeline or, like Mail does for outgoing messages, a brief sound could indicate the data has been transmitted.
[...] he then points out a vestigial modal dialog indicating something was succesfull. [...]