Mikey McMikerson
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2010
- Messages
- 1
Hello, I recently got into multi-level output light collecting as an interest branch off from collecting multitools. After reading a lot about various brands and having owned (and mostly sold) a Nitecore, Jetbeam, Fenix, Zebralight and Olight, I'm amazed by how poorly interfaces are designed on most of these lights.
I want to put forward some UI principles that I think make a lot of sense. Tell me if they're unreasonable.
***Never have turning the light off for some amount of time be a method of changing modes.***
When you shut something down you expect it to come back on the way it was before being shutdown, or, for lights too good for a memory function, to a pre-set start mode. Turning the light off, then deciding you want it on again within a couple seconds should not leave you staring and a freakin' strobe. Being extra mindful about turning your light on and off is not necessary for good designs, and even if you are this feature can still cause issues with the light in momentary mode. Also, making the off-on timer .2 seconds instead of 2 seconds does not fix the inherently poor idea.
***If the user does not mean to enter SOS mode, he should NEVER see it.***
Putting SOS and strobe on the same function path as high med and low is just stupid. There is no good reason to go through two useless eye-straining modes to get from med to low. I own lights that manage not to do it, there is no benefit to doing it, therefor every light that does just has LAZY PROGRAMING.
***Keep it SIMPLE***
Look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czUxszAf-JU#t=23m29s
That looks like a joke. Like if someone asked how to start your car, and you replied, "put the key in the ignition, turn it back and forth 3 times, get out and do two laps around the car, and on the second lap tap yakety sax on the hood, then get back in the car within 2 seconds of the last note and it will start."
It boggles my mind that an engineer in a workshop somewhere though all that work to get more than 2 light settings was a good idea.
Any light that includes a settings menu is going to have a pretty un-elegant UI because of how hard it is to make sure it doesn't get entered accidentally with only 1 button and a twist cap to utilize for input.
On my Nitecore D10 you can easily select a range of brightnesses, and nothing gets in your way. You don't get strobe when you don't want. You don't have to do ridiculous button combos to make your selection. It is simple, functional, and offers countless light level settings. No other AA light I've come across stands up to it's UI. The Zebralight 501w I have is a functional UI, but not quite is elegant as the D10. Everything else has been pretty disappointing.
I want to put forward some UI principles that I think make a lot of sense. Tell me if they're unreasonable.
***Never have turning the light off for some amount of time be a method of changing modes.***
When you shut something down you expect it to come back on the way it was before being shutdown, or, for lights too good for a memory function, to a pre-set start mode. Turning the light off, then deciding you want it on again within a couple seconds should not leave you staring and a freakin' strobe. Being extra mindful about turning your light on and off is not necessary for good designs, and even if you are this feature can still cause issues with the light in momentary mode. Also, making the off-on timer .2 seconds instead of 2 seconds does not fix the inherently poor idea.
***If the user does not mean to enter SOS mode, he should NEVER see it.***
Putting SOS and strobe on the same function path as high med and low is just stupid. There is no good reason to go through two useless eye-straining modes to get from med to low. I own lights that manage not to do it, there is no benefit to doing it, therefor every light that does just has LAZY PROGRAMING.
***Keep it SIMPLE***
Look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czUxszAf-JU#t=23m29s
That looks like a joke. Like if someone asked how to start your car, and you replied, "put the key in the ignition, turn it back and forth 3 times, get out and do two laps around the car, and on the second lap tap yakety sax on the hood, then get back in the car within 2 seconds of the last note and it will start."
It boggles my mind that an engineer in a workshop somewhere though all that work to get more than 2 light settings was a good idea.
Any light that includes a settings menu is going to have a pretty un-elegant UI because of how hard it is to make sure it doesn't get entered accidentally with only 1 button and a twist cap to utilize for input.
On my Nitecore D10 you can easily select a range of brightnesses, and nothing gets in your way. You don't get strobe when you don't want. You don't have to do ridiculous button combos to make your selection. It is simple, functional, and offers countless light level settings. No other AA light I've come across stands up to it's UI. The Zebralight 501w I have is a functional UI, but not quite is elegant as the D10. Everything else has been pretty disappointing.
