Love or loathe the iPod – and personally I am fairly indifferent – it has to be admitted that there was one thing that Apple got right – and that is the user interface. Apple, actually, are quite good at this. As a Mac user now of 3 years I no longer think of myself as a ’switcher’ but most definitely a ’switched’ – and this means that I can also now understand more about the Apple philosophy.

Apple really build 2 very distinct sorts of software. There is the iLife style and then there is the serious style but it is the former that have found enormous favour and acceptance since the launch of OSX. The software designers work to a very fixed format in these applications – the user interface is rigid. If you are happy to do things the prescribed ‘Apple’ way then they are simplicity itself. Take iTunes, for example. It does what it does well but that’s all it does. If you don’t much like the way it stores its data or struts its stuff then you are out of luck. It is exactly what it is. A very limited, precise, tyrannical piece of software. If you want multiple options and an all-singing, all-dancing application, then iTunes isn’t for you. But as the vast majority of users want to be hand-held and led in a safe direction, it is perfect. Plug the iPod into it and just let it happen. It is the way most people want it.

The simplicity of searching through the menus and options on the iPod itself is another stroke of genius. It couldn’t be simpler which is also a key factor to its success. Which brings me to an interesting fact I gleaned this morning regarding the mobile phone. A recent survey has shown that nearly a quarter of phones returned for being faulty are working properly. The problem is people just cannot figure out how to use them.

This is true not just of mobile phones of course. As technology gets more advanced and manufacturers pack more and more features into little plastic cases, the ease of use seems to rise exponentially. Many people famously had trouble programming their video recorder with the remote control but that was a piece of cake compared to programming a DVD recorder with it’s multiple format options and editing capabilities. Indeed, one of the most difficult and non-intuitive interfaces in my house is the central heating timer which quite obviously was a victim of a company that ignorantly believed they needed no design department.

And that’s what Apple got right and so many of their competitors and fellow companies get so wrong. Interface design. They know that the real technophiles will accept their applications and gadgets with ease even if unchallenged by them. But they also understand that the technophobe needs to have their hands held and just want it to work without them having to do too much. Like read a users manual.