Quote:
Originally Posted by Shad Plante
I think you are giving Amazon a little too much credit for being customer focused. They drug their feet for a long time on the whole bold issue. They are going to be careful about doing anything to upset customers too much, but they aren't going to be responsive to customer's needs/wants unless there are enough of them that care.
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Precisely. I did cover this in a previous post. Amazon's customer focus in general is just that. General. It doesn't mean that it is going to accommodate any particular individual customer or group of customers, particularly where it relates to platform changes. I have come to realise that Amazon places great importance on providing the best user experience for most users, not niche users or power users. I think what eventually prompted the font handling changes is not that a relatively small group of customers wanted to play with fonts. It was the recognition that more bold options improved the experience for many readers, particularly older and visually impaired readers. I think the delay was because they want their software to be very easy to use, including across multiple devices. Many of us don't realise how really confusing even a good gui can get for some people, who just want something that works, not a multitude of confusing options. This is reflected in the way the changes were implemented, not with finely grained control like Kobo but with simple choices.
More sophisticated users are simply going to have to put up with the fact that Amazon is not going to cater to our whims or preferences at the cost of making the GUI even a little more complicated, unless the case for it is very compelling indeed. I'm sure the existing GUI attracts many support calls for simple help, with each added little complexity generating more. The only real option is to vote with your feet, though to do so in many cases would be cutting off your nose to spite your face, at least to some extent. I could be happy reading exclusively on my H2O, but would still want to buy my books on Amazon. I would miss whispersync and 3g connectivity. I would probably end up having to deprive myself of KU, because there would be no verifiable way of ensuring the author would be paid when reading on my H2O. That would be money straight from my pocket! And my Oasis or Paperwhite offers an excellent reading experience, even if not as customisable as my H2O.