It seems so simple, but people can often ignore the best examples when designing their own software applications. Witness the difference between finding a podcast link in the iTunes music store and Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace:
iTunes
1. Right click on podcast artwork
2. Select Copy iTunes Store URL
3. Paste link into any other application
Zune
1. Go to the Podcast page in Zune Marketplace you want to make a link.
2. Click on “Tell a Friend” and send it to yourself via email.
3. In the e-mail message, right-click on the album name and copy hyperlink.
– Link Code: http://social.zune.net/external/LaunchClient.aspx?mtype=Podcast&mid=
4. Paste the hyperlink somewhere as this is the complete link you will need (i.e., Outlook, Word). If you paste it and just the album name is pasted, right click on the album name again and select Edit Hyperlink to find the URL.
Why should you have to email yourself a link when it could easily be provided within the interface itself. Is this a case of “not invented here” syndrome? It is a small thing, but experiences such as this color user’s opinions of software and ease of operation.
I’m a little confused, perhaps we have different software? Here are my steps:
1. Go to the Podcast page in Zune Marketplace you want to make a link.
2. Click on the big button that says “SUBSCRIBE”.
3. Done
Maybe what you’re doing is trying to get to the URL of the podcast yet you don’t want to use the Zune software to manage it? In that case I can’t imagine that was very high on their design list and their first design concern was making it as easy as possible for the average user to subscribe to podcasts, which they’ve done.
Yes, we are talking about different things. Subscribing is indeed easy. No problem there. The Zune Insider piece was telling us podcasters how to create a “deep link” directly to our show page in the Marketplace, sort of like the one you see at the top of the right hand column here. My issue was the multiple steps in order to get that link. which is actually a pretty important step for podcast producers. It seemed illustrative of design differences between Microsoft and Apple, that one was exceeding simple and the other a bit obtuse.
Douglas