Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/30

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica's unresponsiveness
From: "Martin V. Howard" <marho@ida.liu.se>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 13:48:17 +0200

Alexey Merz wrote:
> 
> In particular, we have had
> many, many problems with support of a $200,000 system for biological
> fluorescence miicroscopy. The system has always been optically perfect
> (that is, worked AT the theoretical limit of optical resolution)
> but its UI (it's computer-controlled) stinks...[truncated]
>

Interesting.  I'm a PhD student working with human-computer interaction
and usability.  When Leica sent the blurb newsletter about their new
digital camera, there was a screenshot on the page.  I though then that
the quality of the user interface was terribly at odds with the quality
of Leica's physical products.  OK, so they hadn't developed it them-
selves, but still.

Not many manufacturers realize that you cannot just slap on any computer
interface into embedded technology.  It needs to be designed as part of
the greater system, in keeping with the overall systems' look-and-feel,
if it is going to be successfull.

Leica have a very clear visual look to their products: they are 
instantly recognizable as Leica equipment.  Their software needs to
follow this too.  I would have expected a company with such a strong
corporate identity to recognize this.


M.

- -- 
Martin V. Howard, Application Systems Laboratory,     | 
Dept. of Comp. & Info. Sci., Linkoping University,    | Just "DOHH" it!
SE-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.  Tel +46 13 282 421,     +----------------+
Fax +46 13 142 231; marho@ida.liu.se; www.ida.liu.se/~marho