Have you ever noticed how outside appearances often set our opinion on what's inside? An angry or friendly look on someone's face sets the stage for what we think is going on inside.
While this makes sense in humans because our outer appearance often is a reflection of what's inside, it doesn't translate well to machines. A frustrating user interface doesn't tell you how well the hardware functions.
This is especially frustrating when it comes to our personal music systems. If the volume control's a pain to use, or the sample rate indicator is wrong, we get all worked up and find it hard to enjoy the music. Which perhaps explains why today, our engineering team spends as much time designing the user interface as we do the actual hardware producing the music.
While I get it, I must say it's a bit frustrating. Having grown up in this industry where the UI consisted of little more than a series of knobs, switches and buttons—controls that we maybe took a day or two to design, there was a certain beauty to investing all our efforts into performance.
It's not that we don't still do that. The difference today is that it simply takes twice as long to get from an idea to a finished product we're proud to put the PS name on.
But it's not just audio equipment that's laboring under these new paradigms.
The next time you're shopping for a new fridge and get enamored with its video screen running on AI, give a nod to the good old days where there was not much more than a handle to open it.
The food inside tastes the same regardless of the amount of lipstick applied to the exterior.
