Quote:
Originally Posted by jocampo
Hmmm....
I think that I am not following you. And I am going to speak as an Engineer now. Regarding the screen contrast: if the science and the facts are telling you specific numbers about it, thing that you can measure and those are unquestionable, anything else is just a user's perception to me. Moreover, remember that in some of those firmware upgrades there is a psychological factor that can "creates" or "removes" some user's perceptions; even in terms of hardware, something as simple as a case color for the device can give you an illusion of a worse or better contrast without being a scientific fact. |
My point was that tech specs do not necessarily have anything to do with user experience or translate to real functionality. The Pearl screen has a 50% improvement in contrast ratio, right. That is the fact that gets quoted all the time, I am not arguing that it is not technically true. That fact lead me to compare the 2 devices thinking I probably needed that 50% increase. The truth is that the spec did not translate into a 50% functional difference on the devices themselves. Quoting it because from an engineering perspective it is true does not matter when the actual user experience is much different. Restating the same tech spec that does not translate over and over just becomes part of the misinformation about the devices and the tech.
Yes it is users perception - That was exactly my point. What the user sees is more important than specifications. The specs help with advertising etc. but when they do not translate into a real functional improvement to the user then they are useless propaganda no matter how true they are from an engineering point.
I watched the upgrade before my eyes from firmware 1.4 to 1.5 the difference in clarity on the screen was obvious. I was not expecting it because that was not in the press release for 1.5. The only thing I wanted to see was page turns and organization and what I received was a firmware upgrade that really improved the readability of the older screen on the Nook. Now compared to K3 it is barely noticeable between the 2. That is also a fact because the only thing that really matters in the end is what the users experience is.
I write software and I learned a long time ago that producing a more powerful and technically superior User Interface means nothing if the actual users do not benefit from the technical advantages you produced. You can tell them it is better all day long but if that engineering improvement does not benefit their use cases, or worse has a negative impact then it is not an improvement for the user. However you can accurately state the technical specification that make the engineer in you convinced it is better.