Apple is usually sensible especially when it comes to their website design and usability. But I noticed something on Apple’s site that sort of insulted my intelligence. This happened when I was browsing their site for a new Macbook Pro. Once you drill down to the product detail you will see an image of the Macbook Pro on the right hand side. Below it are three links that let’s you view the three different sizes that MacBook Pro comes in; 13″, 15″, and 17″.
I know how big/small they are because I have 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pros. But I wanted to click on those links anyway just to see how Apple went about presenting the three different sizes. To my surprise (I was actually offended by this), when you click on the link for a different size, it merely displays a MacBook of a different size by itself on a white background. What’s wrong with this? The MacBook Pros look identical no matter what size they are – at least from the frontal view. Go try it yourself and see if you can discern the size difference. The photos become larger or smaller in reference to your browser window but what good is that?
Without any known object or point of reference, those images each by themselves are virtually useless in determining the size relationship to one another. They are in fact three different shots (judging by the black border around the monitor) however, as far as effectiveness goes, they might as just well be three magnifications of the same object. This feature offers no real value, information or benefit. It’s only telling me that 13″ is in fact, smaller than 15″ (who knew?), and that 15″ is not larger than 17″. Well, thanks but did I really need to waste three clicks to be reminded of that?
One Comment
Ha, interesting observation!