Hi fellow Zuners!

 

Have you ever bought a device and wished you could tell the designers exactly what you thought about it?  Have you ever wanted to tell them about a feature you really liked?  Or maybe you've been so frustrated with the way something worked (or didn’t work) you wanted to poke them in the eye?  Have you ever had information you thought might be helpful, but don’t know what to do with it?  Here’s your chance!  Except for the poking in the eye part… you’ll have to settle for imagining that.

 

I’m part of the Zune dev team responsible for testing the Zunepad.  (That would be the area at the bottom you rub with your finger to navigate the menus.)  I’d like to know about your experiences with the Zunepad.  We want the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Anything you want to tell us about is appreciated… as long as it’s about the Zunepad.  For other issues see your psychiatrist.

 

Some things I’d like to hear about:

·         What was your initial experience with the Zunepad?

·         How did you learn how to use the Zunepad?  (Experimentation, friend showed me, website, etc.)

·         Did you face any difficulties while learning how to use it?

·         How long did it take you to discover the touch navigation features?

·         How long did it take you to become comfortable with touch navigation after you discovered it?

 

I’m also interested in any detailed feedback you have, such as:

·         Do you experience any incorrect clicks or dropped clicks? 

·         Does the touch navigation respond well?

·         When using touch navigation, do you ever accidentally get a vertical movement when you meant to do a horizontal movement, or vice versa? 

·         Does the Zunepad behave consistently?

·         Do you use your Zune with one hand or two?

·         Which part of your finger do you use on the Zunepad?  (Because of the way I hold it I tend to use the side of my thumb right next to my thumbnail.)

·         Etc…

 

As always, too much information is better than too little information.  If you're reporting a difficulty, describe the problem in as much detail as you can.  Please include which device you have:  Zune 4, Zune 8, or Zune 80.

 

Example of very good detail:

“I have a problem with my Zune 80 I haven’t been able to figure out.  When I use my nose to scroll down through the music list my toaster pops up!  It only happens when the wireless is on and the device is unlocked.  It doesn’t happen if I scroll to the sides or up, only down.  It also doesn’t happen when I scroll with anything other than my nose.  I’ve tried it with white bread, rye bread, and English muffins—it happens regardless of what I have in the toaster. 

 

“I noticed this problem around Dec 1, about 10 days after I bought my Zune.  I think it was shortly after I upgraded the firmware.  When I tried it with my friend’s Zune 80 it didn’t affect the toaster.  My Zune didn’t affect his toaster either.  My toaster is a Toast-O-Matic 4000.

 

“BTW, I just tried scrolling with my nose while standing on my head.  When I do that the toaster pops up when I scroll *up* instead of scroll *down.*”

 

Example of very bad detail:

“Zune 5uXX0rZ!!  It should have a built-in toaster!  Then it would r0xx0rZ!!!”

 

Thanks for helping us make Zune even better!

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-Dak

Zune Product Team
.: This posting is provided "as-is" with no warranties, and confers no rights :.

I've stickied this. I can verify that he's a Zune staffer, although his Z level seems to not be working right now

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Cesar
Zune Product Team

.: This posting is provided "as-is" with no warranties, and confers no rights :.

 Daklu wrote:

 

Example of very bad detail:

“Zune 5uXX0rZ!!  It should have a built-in toaster!  Then it would r0xx0rZ!!!”

 

First off I think some basic info on how the zune touchpad actually works would help.  We've heard it's heat sensative and that it's not heat sensative.  Nothing to technical just the basics to give users a better understanding altogether.

I purchased a Zune 4 and initially turned the touch feature off but I don't like the "button" feel of the touchpad so I turned the touch system back on.  So it's safe to say at first I didn't care for it.........until I actually used it.  The touchpad is essentitally easy to use but is at times "unreponsive" meaning you may drag your finger across the pad and it doesn't pick it up but then have to go back over and repeat the drag again (this happens horizontally and vertically).  For me it didn't take long to become comfortable with the touch navigations again the only real bothersome thing is having to go back over a touch move I previously made because the pad didn't pick it up.  The touchpad seems to have problems with slower movements.

The pad behaves consistently enough for it not to be a bother or inconveince for me at least (again I hate the feel of the button).  There have been a couple of times when I have gone the opposite of the intended direction but this was becuase a second finger of mine was on the touchpad.  I use "print" side of my thumb to navigate and only need to use my Zune 4 with one hand.

Side note about last part............HAHAHA

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http://www.myspace.com/mikeisawesomeness

I actually own a 30 myself but I have played around with my friend's 8G. The touchpad was different at first. I was not used to it. After toying around for a few minutes I figured out all of the features and such. It seemed pretty easy to use for me. I liked that you could scroll by sweeping your finger up or down or you could press the edge as if you were using the 30. The dual feature is awesome. Completely blows the click pad on iPod away..by far! It was a little hard sometimes to know how fast you were scrolling in relation to how fast you were moving your finger...sometimes I scrolled past what I wanted on accident...but I am certain if I owned one and used it daily I would become used to it pretty fast. Overall I LOVE the touchpad I wish my 30 had one!! It is so much easier to use than anything else I have played with or owned! As far as problems go I cant really comment because I have not used it for more than about an hour but didnt seem to drop and clicks or anything...it seemed to work fine for me...but I also dont own one or opperate one daily.

The only advice I could give Zune about the touchpad is to PLEASE put it on the 30...and FAST!!

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“I may play the fool at times but I'm a little more than just a pretty blonde girl with an ass that won't quit.”

My experience using the zunepad on my zune 8 has been positive and i like it very much. I also have a zune 30 and sometimes when using my zune 8 after having used my zune 30 for a while I tend to click the pad instead of using the touch pad. But after one or two times i get back to scrolling through my library using my thumb on the zunepad. When some friends of mine use my zune 8 they find it a bit difficult using the zunepad. Thay sometimes try to use it as an ipod click wheel but when I explain to them how it is used they get it very easily, amd most of them like it. I also find it very responsive most of the times but sometimes it like freezes or when I press the center to select a song it scrolls up or down and selects another song or item and it can be a little anoying. But for the most part I love it. Keep up the good work. 

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Hello from Puerto Rico

Thank you for the opportunity to feed back about the touchpad. A little background. I first wanted the iPod. So I bought the new classic 80, the one people are complaining has a lousy pad, but I returned it after 6 weeks to Costco. So I have experience with the Zune 80 and the Newest iPod 80.
I much prefer the layout and function of the Zune. Using a circular impedence pad just didn't cut it. It was poor in design and tactile response.
There were two functions, the navigation and selection, in two different areas, whereas with the Zune the two are combined on the Squircle.
The side to side and up-down configurations seem much more logical than using a circle, however after 3 weeks of using my Zune I still find that I am not "right on" some of the areas I need to be, i.e. exactly side to side, or up and down. Wearing an extra large surgical glove, I realize that I have rather large hands and fingers, which may be a cause of the ineptness in my using the pad. A larger pad would be in order as far as I am concerned. However, with my large hands I can easily operate the device in one hand. Maybe someone with a medium sized hand would give you better feedback.
As far as documentation and how I learned to use the pad, it HAD to be trial and error. The documentation, instructions, *** owner's manual is sorely lacking. A CD, even one of this tiny ones, with docs would have been an inexpensive addition that would save countless headaches for MS and for users. I truly believe this is one area you have a "one up" on the competition. A CD with interactive instructions to get up and running. Not everyone that buys the Zune is 18 and electronics savvy.
All in all, you guys are in the right direction. Accolades to all of you. Keep the innovation coming, you have a LOT of catching up to do. To be #1 is going to take a Herculan effort and unless MS is totally dedicated with the personnel and $$ it won't happen

If i had to change or in this case add an option to the Zune pad it will be sensibility, like in a laptop touchpad. Sometimes in the Zune I'm browsing through the collection and it is difficult to select an option because it will either go to the next option or keep scrolling. So I guess adding an option such as very sensitive, medium or low sensitivity would help. Thank you for the opportunity :)

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Remember... just because you were taught one way doesn't necessarily mean it was the best way.

I have a Zune 80. It only took a few minutes to get the hang of the Zunepad. It is similar to the touchpad on my laptop computer so it was intuitive. It's fun to sometimes just give it a swipe in the artist list and see where it stops when I'm not sure what I want to listen to - kind of like the old game where you spin the globe with your eyes closed and randomly point to a spot on the map.

As suggested above, I can see how having levels of sensitivity might be useful.

I really like the touch feature of the Zune now in the second iteration.  The reason I didn't get the Zune30 originally was because it looked poorly designed, but also because the touch did not offer anything intuitive like most other players did.  The Zunepad solved that, so I bought myself a Zune80 at Originals...before I even tested how it felt.  (I just trust Microsoft that much, scary)  I am satisfied with it, so my trust was apparently well placed.

The BIGGEST annoyance for me at this point is the horizontal swipes, as they're often dropped.  When browsing the files it doesn't seem to be an issue, but if I'm browsing Podcasts / Music / Video there is a high level of drop rate.  The vertical?  No problem.  It just takes me two or three swipes to get from Artist to Genre to Etc...  And it's pretty annoying.

I say that the user-set level of sensitivity would be awesome.  And I'd also like an answer to the heat thing...  Maybe my hands are just so cold the Zunepad has a hard time detecting my fingers.  I dunno.

Congrats on a good navigation system though.  (For the third generation, I'd look at the design for the bigger HDD player, right now it's hard for me to hold the 80 with one hand because the bottom is so off balanced with the large screen.  The iPod is pretty [super super] easy to simply hold with one hand.  Just a suggestion.)

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A simple question kid;
Are you with me or not at all?
- Sleeping with Giants
(The Academy Is...)

Up/down is working great with my 80 Gb zune, but when I try the left/right one it doesn't respond as smoothly as the up/down one, I just need to keep doing it 2-3 times until it work.

I don't know whether this is a software problem or hardware one