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As a side note, I’ve recently thought it’s curious how most techies/geeks and the like seem to be against DRM, yet it’s something we’ve accepted and been happy with for years. We just called it shareware.

When I redesigned my site I need a graphics program. I’ve have no real design skills, but I still need to manipulate some images. I used to use ACDSee Photo Editor which came with ACDSee Photomanager. This was perfect till about version 8 or 9 when they have it too much functionality and turned it to shit and I went to mac.

I wanted something the same level for my Mac, but couldn’t find anything till recently. Photoshop/Ilustrator are too expensive, GIMP is like photoshop, but eye pokingly horrible too use and not very mac like. Please don’t comment on how great GIMP is I’d rather eat butter coated turds than use it. I can’t stand open office either. Don’t bother.

Anyway recently a raft of image/photo editing software just came out for the mac that was (potentially) just what I was looking for.

Acron, DrawIT, Pixelmator, Iris and LiveQuartz.

I’m not actually going to review any of these (I might do it later but this isn’t the purpose of this post).

What I am going to do is talk about evaluating these.

I have no problem with the concept of shareware. I have no problems with paying for software. In fact I’ll pay for just about anything under $20, and be pretty easy going up to $50. One might say I’m largely an ideal candidate for shareware.

However, like iTunes Video Rentals I think the terms of the shareware not conducive to adoption. Most shareware has most of if not all the following conditions

1. 15-30 day trial period (then mostly or totally stops working)
2. Annoyance (30s nag window)
3. Limited functionality (can’t print or save)

Now I fully understand this. We’re having the same debate at work and the need to generate revenue has to be balanced against getting users to use your products.

The problem with the above limitations is they don’t get users to use the products. And sometimes they get users to stop using the products. But mostly they just get users to evaluate the products.

What’s that I hear you say? “But we want users to evaluate our products”. Um … no you don’t. I remember reading a good article a few years ago, where someone was saying the problem with software reviews is that they are by reviews evaluating the software. So they install it, play it for a bit, write the evaluation and stop using it. Which is not the same as using it. I mean really really using it.

See the problem with a 15-30 day trial, is I normally download something, open it up. Have a look see and then shut it down. 10 days later when I open it up again, half my trial has gone and I have barely used it.

The problem with not being able to print and save, is that I can’t use the software properly, so all I can do is evaluate it for about 10 mins. I can’t *really really use it * intensely, for a period of time so I know I want it.

And well annoyances are annoyances, and I either get used to blindly ignoring them, or I de-install.

Take for example my blog. When the time came to use a graphics tool, DrawITs of trials was up and Acorn would put an annoyance watermark up after 15 mins, so I had to try working in 10 min goes. Eventually I paid up to discover it was half baked and so I now resent them

I think shareware developers need to look at what it takes to get passed the learning curve on their software and really be a user. On a saturday when redoing my blog I might have used Acorn for 3 hours over a 9 hour period. So instead of a 30 day evaluation, give me 30 hours. But 30 hours of actual use. Not since opening it, not sitting in the background. But actually using the tool. And hell while you are at it, double that number. Give me 60 hours.

If I’ve used your tool for 60 hours and am still using it, odds are I’ll buy it. And if I only use it for 60 hours in a year, give it to me for free. Or for $5, or $10% of the price. Because if I’m barely using your program throughout a year, even if I use it intensely for a weekend every now and then, I’m not going to pay. There are plenty of shareware apps, I would pay $5 or $10 for. But for something I ‘m going to use once I month, I’m not going to pay $50 for.

So you could be getting $5 from me. Which is not the same as losing $45, as you never were going to get it anyway.

I understand what a balance this is. We’re trying to get this right at work, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we got it wrong a few more times before we got it right. But I do know we want people using our solution over other solutions. And the best way to do this is to get people using it. Not to get people blocking it.

Do you think it’s by accident that Apple laptops and computers are all unlocked in their stores and online. Because unlike their competitors (who make less revenue per square foot of retail) they’re know that what needed to get people to buy machines is for them to play with them. Not for them to look at them. Even if people are sitting on them facebooking and hotmailling. They are using them. And thet’s what counts.

I had a friend who called indicators “tick-tocks”. Used to drive me batty, as it just sounded childish and … well dumb to me. For the same reasons I steam slightly at the ears when people write “u” or “wot” instead writing like an educated adult. ¹

So it does amuse me that whilst the Brits are quick to jump on, an beat Americans with the smug stick, they specialise in some of the most annoying dumbing down that grates against my language sensibilities ²

The three that easily jump to mind and hit it with a “it’s so wrong” bat are

1. Eggy Bread
2. Joined up Writing
3. Pancake Day

I look at those and I shudder. It’s like spiders with big nails walking up a black board.

For the record the real names are

1. French Toast.
2. Cursive Writing
3. Shrove Tuesday

What’s next, present-day (Christmas), arty-writing (calligraphy), square bread (loaf) and stick bread (baguette), porn box (computer), wordy paper (books), etc etc.

It’s all shudder worthy. And I hear these terms from smart, normal serious people who suddenly sound like children to me. Although I don’t think language should be dumped down for children either.

How anyone can think “joined-up-writing” sounds like something you would say beyond the age of 5 I don’t know. And what’s wrong with cursive?

Or how anyone can take lent seriously but then call it pancake day is beyond me. I’m not being picky here, I really don’t understand how you can keep 40 days of a religious discipline but then remove the hysterical or religious significance from the event by removing all the meaning of the day by trivialising it into it’s most mundane element. It’s strikes me as very odd.

I’m sure their are other examples of this, and it may not be a purely British trait, but for a country that gave us such a wealth of poetry and great writing, it strikes me as very odd.

But then wot do I know³?

¹ Yes I know my grammer and spelling are not always in line with what one might view as an educated adult. However I will say these two things (1) They are not intentional, “u” and “wot” are, and (2) bite me.

² Yes I have some. You have eats shoot and peas. I have my own.

³ I fully expect to be be yelled at for this blog post. But really … eggy bread? I mean come on.

A friend of mine used to drive a right hand drive Alfa Spider. It was a ridiculously impractical car, with all the niggles of old Italian engineering. He had to put his work access card on a stick and lean across the passenger seat to get into the office.

But he loved it. Where others saw niggles, he saw character. Where others saw ridiculous impracticality, he saw the coolest car on the planet. Or at lest that he ever owned.

Which is why I have always said “Buy the car you want, not the one that looks good on paper” †. The problem when you buy a car that ticks all the boxes the decision is too logical. So the pleasure or enjoyment you get out of it is minimised but all the quirks still remain. And those quirks can drive you nutty. But when you buy a car for emotional reasons (which can vary from “It’s red” to “It’s a sexy fast convertible”) you overlook those quirks or rationalise them in character, or simply don’t care.

Ever wonder why most car adverts try engage with people on an emotional rather than practical level? No one really cares about how many cup holders a car has. Note also the shift to things like fuel economy and safety as those issues have become socially and hence emotionally relevant over the recent few years.

Which brings me to Apple. Since the return of Jobs (and doesn’t that sound like biblical passage) Apple has more been engaging with people emotionally. From a design level, from a usability point of view, and from inserting itself into the social zeitgeist. Note the passion of Apple converts. It may be written off in the media as fanboys or fanatics or what not, but it’s a sign of a company building products that engage emotionally, and I can bet that Microsoft or Sony would sacrifice virgin coders to the dark forces if they could get it. Or get it back in Sony’s case. Nintendo has managed this too with the wii.

Of course their are cases where this passion can be counter productive. Some people hate a winner. Starbucks suffer from this a lot in the UK (perhaps elsewhere too). Apple gets a lot of people who resent the ‘hype’ (whatever that is) and don’t like apples products regardless of any logical reasoning. Seen often Daring Fileball as a jackass or being taken down by The Macalope

I had an argument with a friend this week on the iPhone. He “doesn’t buy into Apples hype”. Although he did go through 3 Sony MP3 players before now buying a series of iPods and an iPhone. But because he got the iPhone for logical reasons (best phone on the market) the quirks annoy him. And yeah the iPhone has it’s quirks, and bugs. But no more so than any other phone.

However because he has no emotional attachment to the iPhone (because he doesn’t like the ‘hype’), where he sees an issues with ringtones it’s Apple being crap, and not noticed that it’s the record companies or the fact he had the exact problem with every other phone. Where he sees it as annoying their is no drafts folder for texts, I see the fact that I have email that finally works, where he sees no 3G, I see the best mobile browser on the market.

We both have the same phone. But because I ‘like’ the phone and he doesn’t he sees the problems the phone has and I ignore them. I see the features the phone has, the design, and the general increase in use I have had over all my other phones. He never should have got an iPhone and I advised against it. Because it just frustrates him.

I always think you should buy products that you like.

I always think you should build products that people like. That people emotionally engage with. That people are passionate about. All the best websites do. If you want to be the best make sure you people who are passionate about what you do. If you want people to be passionate about what you do, you better be too.

† This may not be true for all people, or people who could car less about the car, as the fact it’s 4 wheels and box to get you from A to B. However most people I have found who own a car have some degree of passion for it, from Ford Fiestas to hand build Caterham Sevens. People who don’t own cars at all (and/or can’t drive) however often don’t get the car thing at all.

I was going to a blog post on some usability thing on Facebook, but I'll get around to this after I get back from snowboarding.

Instead I'll go back to the true spirit of the internet ... pointless crap.

My answers to the rest of the survey were not much better. Still 5 mins of my time, possible £20 voucher.

I'm sure I'm going to land up on a hit list of researchers and survey people one day.