I can get to something faster in any other way in comparison to the crazy quilt quagmire that is AOL.
With all due respect, you, me, or any techy, are the last peope in the world to judge the quality of a man-machine interface. You want a screwed up MMI? Go find a software developer to build it. You want a good MMI? Go find someone who is computer illiterate but has to use a computer to perform a function. Find a secretary. Find a homemaker. Find a soldier carrying a rifle (for military MMIs). I could give you horror stories about MMIs costing zillions of dollars and designed by the best minds in the business but that were worthless for the typical user. I dislike most of the web interfaces I work with, but all in all, in spite of AOL's design problems, it is not bad for the average user, who has their favorite spots to visit, who likes to rummage around and see what they stumble onto, who likes to be chatty with friends, who likes lots of colors and fancy looking buttons. At least 15M have voted with their subscriptions, 1M in the last month. And Earthlink, AT&T, and others send out discs as well, so it is not just the carpet bombing. |
