Usability expert hates the Kindle Fire

Part of making a successful product is making it usable for your target audience. That, apparently, is something that Amazon completely missed with its new Kindle Fire.

“Amazon.com’s new Kindle Fire offers a disappointingly poor user experience,” said usability expert Jakob Nielsen in his report. “Using the web with the Silk browser is clunky and error-prone. Reading downloaded magazines is not much better.

It’s no surprise that one of the main observations in the study is that everything was just too small. Repeatedly tapping on the screen and never quite getting to where you want to go.

“You haven’t seen the fat-finger problem in its full glory until you’ve watched users struggle to touch things on the Fire,” said Nielsen.”

Being able to navigate the Kindle Fire’s small screen isn’t the only problem. It’s also a heavy beast. According to Nielsen, the Fire is “unpleasant to hold for extended periods of time. Unless you have forearm muscles like Popeye, you can’t comfortably sit and read an engaging novel all evening.”

That’s not good for a device that’s actually meant to be used to sit and read for an evening.

While they do serve different markets, the iPad’s design is sleek, light and its 10-inch screen allows users to easily navigate full Web sites. Apple’s device also gives users lots of power and the ability to run complex apps and games.

Like most other companies entering the tablet market, Amazon has a long way to go.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CO36G2RP7H3Q43ZWVK4IQAQLAM Ronald

I’d be careful about underestimating Amazon. Most of the complaints are about tablet size, and if (as expected) Amazon releases a 10″ tablet at near the same price, I think it will be quite functional and very popular. I love my iPad and have ZERO interest in an Amazon tablet, but I think they will sell well due to their low price. I don’t think this will hurt Apple too much, but it will make it very hard for Android competitors to make any money.
Ciss

i have both and the price diff is minimum 300! So user needs to keep that in mind and not draw too detail of comparison. Fire is much cheaper bcuz it is NOT a tablet and will not have the capacity to handle apps like ipad. Fire is also very glitchy & cannot run a heavy graphics app and java based emails like hotmail. I finally had 2 delete hotmail from my fire. I like the fire cuz of its size, price, portability. I luv the ipad cuz it can do soo many things and still b very stable-but its too heavy to carry along. Btw, I solved the finger issue by using a stylus(wich r cheap) and i now use the stylus on my ipad.
http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

The Fire will improve in future versions, just as the original Kindle did. But I doubt its reason for existence is to ever directly challenge the iPad.