Comments on: Buggy Software – A Strategic Choice http://blog.utest.com/buggy-software-a-strategic-choice/2009/01/ Software Testing Community Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:18:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Bernard L. http://blog.utest.com/buggy-software-a-strategic-choice/2009/01/comment-page-1/#comment-9803 Bernard L. Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:31:17 +0000 http://blog.utest.com/?p=97#comment-9803 I've been introduced with the BlackBerry Strom device on it's early stages including some crucial software updates with tremendous positive improvements. Yet to say, they lack of User Experience unfortunately! Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of RIM products and I think they are the best in regards to push mail services and their BlackBerry products are the best available workhorses for mail purposes and beyond that. The thing is that the iPhone Buzz got so much attention, that everyone wants a piece of that as well. And apparently it seems that Blackberry wanted a shared cut of other market regions which they did not appeal to with their preceding products. This in the case in both BlackBerry Storm & Pearl flip devices which both I find less user friendly and productive as the 'old fashioned' BlackBerry devices. First of all, the whole concept of a clickable touch screen is somewhat bothersome. Yea, you can 'get used' to it in someway however it still feels too awkward I must say. The touch & double-touch action are very limiting in terms of usability and productivity and I personally find it uneasy to use. Secondly, this is the whole software issue. All regular BlackBerry devices are simple yet user-friendly & most of all productive. The new Storm's software can give you a real hard time. The variety of keyboards which depends on your viewing mode (either horizontal or vertical) is too big and just too confusing. In one field you get a full QWERTY keyboard, on the other a sure type with shared-letters keyboards. Then there are all kind of field specific keyboards in which you have number only, numbers with chars like asterisk or dash symbols and so on. This is just incompatible and confusing I'm afraid. Third, the whole Zoom In/Out concept is just not implemented right. You try working your correct zoom level and come up with either a shrank page or an ultra-zoom view which can blow your eyebrows and so forth. All-in-all this can be a promising device. I must say that after a few days you get used to the keyboard which is not near to the BlackBerry Bold device (Which I personally think is the best of them all plus having the most confortable and smart keyboard & screen). It's just that its software, which controls the whole device usability & productivity experience, does not kick-in nicely - And that's it main weakness. If the software was well thought then this could be a killer device, but until then I'll better stick with the 'old fashioned' BlackBerry device which cannot be beaten! I agree that some real user feedback on this could elevate this product's (and other) software level and resolve all such software issues and I believe that uTest would be a great place for that to happen. Maybe on the Strom 2 we could see this happening. I'll cross my fingers to that. :) Bernard. I’ve been introduced with the BlackBerry Strom device on it’s early stages including some crucial software updates with tremendous positive improvements. Yet to say, they lack of User Experience unfortunately! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of RIM products and I think they are the best in regards to push mail services and their BlackBerry products are the best available workhorses for mail purposes and beyond that.

The thing is that the iPhone Buzz got so much attention, that everyone wants a piece of that as well. And apparently it seems that Blackberry wanted a shared cut of other market regions which they did not appeal to with their preceding products. This in the case in both BlackBerry Storm & Pearl flip devices which both I find less user friendly and productive as the ‘old fashioned’ BlackBerry devices.

First of all, the whole concept of a clickable touch screen is somewhat bothersome. Yea, you can ‘get used’ to it in someway however it still feels too awkward I must say. The touch & double-touch action are very limiting in terms of usability and productivity and I personally find it uneasy to use.

Secondly, this is the whole software issue. All regular BlackBerry devices are simple yet user-friendly & most of all productive. The new Storm’s software can give you a real hard time. The variety of keyboards which depends on your viewing mode (either horizontal or vertical) is too big and just too confusing. In one field you get a full QWERTY keyboard, on the other a sure type with shared-letters keyboards. Then there are all kind of field specific keyboards in which you have number only, numbers with chars like asterisk or dash symbols and so on. This is just incompatible and confusing I’m afraid.

Third, the whole Zoom In/Out concept is just not implemented right. You try working your correct zoom level and come up with either a shrank page or an ultra-zoom view which can blow your eyebrows and so forth.

All-in-all this can be a promising device. I must say that after a few days you get used to the keyboard which is not near to the BlackBerry Bold device (Which I personally think is the best of them all plus having the most confortable and smart keyboard & screen).
It’s just that its software, which controls the whole device usability & productivity experience, does not kick-in nicely – And that’s it main weakness.

If the software was well thought then this could be a killer device, but until then I’ll better stick with the ‘old fashioned’ BlackBerry device which cannot be beaten!

I agree that some real user feedback on this could elevate this product’s (and other) software level and resolve all such software issues and I believe that uTest would be a great place for that to happen.
Maybe on the Strom 2 we could see this happening. I’ll cross my fingers to that. :)

Bernard.

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