moodmat

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Slashdot’s CmdrTaco, upon the introduction of the iPod, October 23, 2001

Apple’s iPod platform is a monster in the portable music space. Tens of millions have been sold, and the application that interfaces with the device, iTunes, runs on tens of millions of computers.

I have a love/hate relationship with the iTunes application. I use it to manage my digital collection, which it does handily, but I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that it has limitations and inconsistencies that I bump into every day.

Note: For the purposes of this post, I am concerned with the iTunes application, not the iTunes store (which has its own issues, of course)

1. Reboot the interface

   Truly the number one issue — the interface is a mess. When iTunes 1.0 shipped in January 2001, it only needed to do a few things: play CDs, rip CDs, play MP3s, and maintain a library of MP3s on disk. There were a few bells and whistles (visualizers, playlists), but things were pretty simple. In 2008, though, the application has grown to encompass a store, streaming radio, podcasts, audiobooks, purchased movies, rented movies, TV episodes, shared libraries, iPods, telephones,
   AppleTV…

   It’s just too much. There is no sane way for a single application’s interface to accomodate all this… stuff. I truly feel for the development team here. I’m pretty sure they find out shortly before Steve Jobs one-more-things some new product into the world and they have to figure out some way to shoehorn yet another media product into the interface.

   The interface of iTunes 7.6.2 feels like a street in Bangalore, with a dizzying array of interface cues and elements rushing off in all directions. Just take a look at the source list to your right. Note the inconsistencies in typography, icons (colors, perspectives, styles, light sources and scale are willy-nilly), etc. Interface feedback and discoverability has taken a backseat to commerce.

   The interface needs to become simpler. Apple’s stock-in-trade has always been design and human factors, and things have gone madly off the rails in iTunes.

2. Refocus on music

   I don’t claim to have all the answers here, but I have to think that simplification of the interface starts with a return to iTunes’ beginnings as a music player/librarian. The video and device functionalities belong in seperate applications. Closely related applications, perhaps, but the only way to make a sane interface is to enforce some separation.

3. Truly smart playlists

   Smart Playlists are perhaps the killer feature of iTunes. Assuming proper metadata in your tracks, you can pull off a number of surprisingly powerful tricks.

   
   The playlist above starts with my 4 and 5-star rated songs, removes Christmas songs and songs I’ve played within the last 2 weeks, and gives me a selection of 40 favorites, which I sync onto my iPod before leaving the house in the morning. In practice, this means I always have a fresh selection of random favorites on one area of my iPod, without having to think about it.

   iTunes knows a lot about what I listen to. It knows which songs I tend to listen to first thing in the morning. It knows what sorts of things I like to listen to on the afternoon commute home. What if you could bring additional machine intelligence like that into the smart playlist process? That would rock.

4. Decouple device management from music playing

   This goes along with item 2. Move the iShinyWidget management tasks out of iTunes proper. Apple would no longer have to rev iTunes every time they refreshed hardware — device updates could be accomodated in a smaller, focused utility that would reduce iTunes bloat and increase stability and interface clarity.

5. Smarter syncing (resampling)

   Apple did a clever thing with the original iPod Shuffle. Realizing that the device’s storage capacity was small, they (optionally) resampled large files to smaller AAC versions when copying them to the device during sync. This could be useful across the board, especially for users who like to keep lossless archival versions of their recordings in their libraries, but are OK with smaller, more portable versions for the road.

6. Foster a third-party plugin ecosystem

   Considering the size of the iTunes installed base, it’s surprising how few 3rd party plugins of note are available. There are a few visualizers, and some nice scripts, but deep integration with sites like last.fm, The All-Music Guide, and Wikipedia would be great, not to mention third-party equalizers, DSP effects plugins, device interfaces (TiVo, Xbox, PlayStation, SlingBox)…

7. Additional codec support

   MP3 and AAC satisfy the vast majority of listeners, but formats like Ogg Vorbis, MusePack, FLAC, and others all have their adherents. Supporting third-party codecs as “full citizens” in iTunes would make a lot of exceptionally bearded fellows happy.

8. Library management for as many supported codecs as practical

   Extend library management functionality (including tagging and encoding) to third-party codecs (see #7) through a documented API. Allow users to manage their entire libraries from the iTunes interface.

9. Integrate library with Time Machine (OS X only)

   Anyone who’s ever had their iTunes library database become corrupted knows the pain of lost metadata, ratings, play counts, etc. Hook iTunes into Time Machine to make recovery from library corruption as painless as possible. Bonus: Stand up to the record industry and allow users to reimport tracks into their libraries directly from their iPods.

10. Become a better Windows citizen (Windows only)

    iTunes on Windows looks and feels like something from another planet for users who aren’t familiar with Mac interface conventions. You’re only a guest there, respect your host, even if he does have a tendency to wear a lampshade on his head.

What are your ideas for iTunes: The Next Generation?