Tascam Portastudio 424<\/a><\/strong>, a beast so awful-sounding that it was actually capable of covering up how bad the music was that I was making. It was my most valuable piece of musical equipment for many years, and it certainly outlasted any computer I’ve ever owned.<\/p>\nThe best part, of course, was the comfort and familiarity I felt with the thing. You just plugged something in and hit record, and it usually sounded pretty decent. There were a finite number of knobs and sliders, and each one only did a single task. In order to change the volume of a track, you reached down and moved a slider. You didn’t use a mouse, and you were looking directly at the control you were changing<\/strong>, rather than at a display several feet away.<\/p>\nThis passage from Eno’s essay is particularly prescient, and feels as though it could have been written about Apple or the iPad.<\/p>\n
Software options proliferate extremely easily, too easily in fact, because too many options create tools that can’t ever be used intuitively. Intuitive actions confine the detail work to a dedicated part of the brain, leaving the rest of one’s mind free to respond with attention and sensitivity to the changing texture of the moment. With tools, we crave intimacy. This appetite for emotional resonance explains why users – when given a choice – prefer deep rapport over endless options. You can’t have a relationship with a device whose limits are unknown to you, because without limits it keeps becoming something else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Perhaps it took Apple to make this happen. They make the hardware, and they make the software, and while the software is feature-filled, you don’t need a manual to use it. Keep it simple, and keep it familiar<\/strong>, and those who use it will be happier and more productive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past few days I’ve been tinkering with Apple’s new GarageBand for iPad, and I’m impressed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[85,48],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}