多位消費(fèi)電子研究工程師在一場(chǎng)研討會(huì)上一致認(rèn)為,嵌入式系統(tǒng)開發(fā)向標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化平臺(tái)發(fā)展的趨勢(shì)將必定加快。其中的諸多原因,都在07年最具影響力的消費(fèi)電子產(chǎn)品iPhone上體現(xiàn)了出來(lái)。
Smart Design公司交互設(shè)計(jì)總監(jiān)Jason Smart認(rèn)為iPhone是“以用戶為中心的設(shè)計(jì)”的典型,響應(yīng)了Tech Online總編Patrick Mannion關(guān)于iPhone是“軟件設(shè)計(jì)和消費(fèi)者體驗(yàn)的完美佳作”的說法。
Portelligent公司總裁David Carey把iPhone稱作一個(gè)“玻璃駕駛艙”,其最卓越功能是“幾乎完全消除了鍵盤的需要”,將用戶引入其觸摸屏的完美體驗(yàn)。他認(rèn)為iPhone的成功讓工程師重新考慮消費(fèi)者使用電子設(shè)備的方式。
反過來(lái),這又使得設(shè)計(jì)的重點(diǎn)從嵌入到產(chǎn)品的硬件,向能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)應(yīng)用并詳細(xì)描述用戶界面的軟件轉(zhuǎn)變。
Carey說,當(dāng)他的公司在某個(gè)產(chǎn)品時(shí),第一件事情就是帶回家“讓老婆和孩子測(cè)試一下”。他想知道它的用戶界面是否能讓他的技術(shù)知識(shí)相對(duì)欠缺的家人很快就能上手,而不需要求助于用戶手冊(cè)。他表示,在這樣的測(cè)試中,很多產(chǎn)品都顯現(xiàn)了很高的故障率,十有八九會(huì)出現(xiàn)“影響可用性的重大缺陷。”
關(guān)于這一點(diǎn),LinuxWorks公司營(yíng)銷副總裁Robert Day援引了VCR的例子,將之稱為一個(gè)無(wú)法通過“家人測(cè)試”的經(jīng)典失敗案例。他指出,有很多人從來(lái)都沒有學(xué)過如何去設(shè)置他們的VCR,甚至連時(shí)間設(shè)置都不會(huì)。但是VCR的后繼者TiVo卻能夠“在幾分鐘之內(nèi)讓小孩和非技術(shù)人員學(xué)會(huì)操作”。
Robert Day表示:“這是一個(gè)巨大的成功,而這都是軟件帶來(lái)的成果。它是一個(gè)開放式標(biāo)準(zhǔn)平臺(tái),不僅可靠,還帶有一個(gè)一流的用戶界面。”
國(guó)家儀器營(yíng)銷和客戶運(yùn)作副總裁John Graff舉了另一個(gè)例子 - 為L(zhǎng)ego設(shè)計(jì)的機(jī)器人玩具,來(lái)講述軟件是如何簡(jiǎn)化嵌入式系統(tǒng)以便于消費(fèi)者使用的。他說,在開發(fā)一個(gè)孩子們必須能操作的界面時(shí),精簡(jiǎn)的才是更好的。
Graff表示,在這些玩具取得成功之后,他提倡他的工程師要在非消費(fèi)型產(chǎn)品的設(shè)計(jì)上開始采用不同的思考方式。“我們將這些產(chǎn)品的功能放到一個(gè)專業(yè)的環(huán)境中去驗(yàn)證。”
研討會(huì)的與會(huì)人員一致認(rèn)為,要簡(jiǎn)化一個(gè)電子產(chǎn)品以使之更簡(jiǎn)單易用,反而需要更復(fù)雜的軟件設(shè)計(jì)。Smart說:“每個(gè)產(chǎn)品都有很多層功能,其中沒有一個(gè)是緊密關(guān)聯(lián)的。要解決這一問題,就需要另一個(gè)本身就很復(fù)雜的軟件層讓一個(gè)非常復(fù)雜的應(yīng)用顯得非常簡(jiǎn)單。”
Carey指出:“另一個(gè)導(dǎo)致向標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化平臺(tái)過渡的趨勢(shì)以及更多依靠軟件的原因,就是產(chǎn)品的成本因素。隨著芯片設(shè)計(jì)成本升高到一個(gè)極高的水平,工程師往往會(huì)習(xí)慣性地認(rèn)為前一年的硬件設(shè)計(jì)是足夠的,至少可以再用一年。為了降低成本,軟件創(chuàng)新可以給舊芯片帶來(lái)新活力。我們要摒棄那種認(rèn)為產(chǎn)品內(nèi)部硬件創(chuàng)新是成功關(guān)鍵的想法。”
他說:“工程師應(yīng)該不停地問自己,在某款芯片設(shè)計(jì)真正過時(shí)之前,他們能使用多長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間？”
另一個(gè)迫使設(shè)計(jì)人員必須將在硬件之上依賴軟件程序的趨勢(shì),則是將不同產(chǎn)品集成到單個(gè)環(huán)境中的需要。研討會(huì)的與會(huì)人員舉了這么一個(gè)例子 - 汽車的儀表板:它正在快速向一個(gè)顯示屏發(fā)展,顯示從音頻、視頻、引擎診斷信息、衛(wèi)星導(dǎo)航到交通警報(bào)的所有信息。要避免產(chǎn)生混亂,就必須設(shè)計(jì)出一套能夠有效地將各個(gè)元件集成到一起的硬件。
國(guó)家儀器的Graff表示:“有很多產(chǎn)品雖然功能齊全,卻無(wú)法滿足快速上市的要求,除非能夠?qū)⒏嗟闹攸c(diǎn)放在軟件設(shè)計(jì)上。”
回到iPhone這個(gè)話題上,Portelligent公司的Carey將摩爾定律和消費(fèi)者進(jìn)行了對(duì)比。他說:“按照摩爾定律,所有的數(shù)字式電子設(shè)備確實(shí)能每隔18個(gè)月就可在性能和功能上增長(zhǎng)一倍,但是用戶接受產(chǎn)品的步伐卻跟不上。人的大腦機(jī)能不可能每18個(gè)月就增強(qiáng)一倍。”
他指出,當(dāng)很多蘋果在手機(jī)領(lǐng)域的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手都千方百計(jì)要滿足摩爾定律,以消費(fèi)者無(wú)法接受其“創(chuàng)新”的速度推出大量新產(chǎn)品和新應(yīng)用時(shí),蘋果卻前進(jìn)得“非常慢”,從iPhone問世以來(lái)僅僅推出了兩到三款新版本。
他說:“蘋果對(duì)此非常滿意,因?yàn)閕Phone的銷量穩(wěn)步提升,消費(fèi)者也逐漸被帶動(dòng)起來(lái)。有時(shí)候你必須慢下來(lái),才能醞釀下一次加速。”
翻頁(yè)查看英文原文:
IPhone nudging embedded design toward standard
The trend toward standardized platforms for development of embedded systems is almost certain to accelerate, according to a panel of engineers who study consumer behavior. Many of the reasons for their conclusion are embodied in the most influential consumer device of the past year: Apple's iPhone.
A panelist at the Embedded Systems Conference here this week, Jason Short, director of interaction design at Smart Design, referred to the iPhone as the epitome of "user-centered design." He echoed the words of moderator Patrick Mannion, editor-in-chief of Tech Online, who called the iPhone "a feat of software design and consumer enablement."
David Carey, who heads the "de-engineering" firm Portelligent, praised the iPhone poetically as a "glass cockpit" whose most significant feature was "almost dispensing fully with the keyboard" and directing the user toward the device's touch-activated screen. The success of iPhone is influencing engineers to reconsider the way consumers use electronic devices, Carey said.
In turn, this reconsideration has shifted design emphasis away from hardware embedded in a device and toward software that enables applications and defines the user interface.
Carey said that when his company reviews a device, an initial step involves taking it home for "the wife and kids to test." He wants to see if the user interface allows his relatively non-technical family to engage with it immediately, without resorting to the user manual. He said the failure rate in this test is "abysmal." Nine of ten devices tend to pose "some significant wall to usability."
Elaborating on the "usability wall," Robert Day, vice president of marketing at LinuxWorks Inc., cited the VCR as a classic "wife-and-kids test" failure. Few people, he said, ever learned to program or even set the time on their VCR. The antidote to the VCR, however, is TiVo, said Day, which can be operated by children and "non-engineering folks within minutes."
"It's a huge success and it's all software. It's an open-standard platform, it's reliable and it has a good user interface."
As further example of using standard software to simplify an embedded system for consumer ease-of-use, offered by John Graff, vice president of marketing and customer operations at National Instruments, were robotic toys designed for Lego. When developing an interface that children must understand, "less is more," said Graff.
When the toys succeeded, said Graff, they prompted his engineers to think differently about designing non-consumer devices. "We were taking functions out of it and putting them into a professional environment."
The panelists agreed that simplifying an electronic device, to make it more user-friendly, tends ironically to require a higher level of complexity in software design. "There are layers of functions in devices," said Short, "and none of it is very coherent." The solution is another layer of software " complicated in itself " that "makes a very complex application seem very simple."
Another reason for shifting toward more standard platforms and a broader dependence on software, said Carey, is cost. "As chip design costs go really stratospheric," engineers are getting "used to the idea that last year's hardware design is really adequate," at least for another year. For much less expense, he said, software innovations can breathe new life into old chips. "We need to abandon the notion that hardware innovation in the inside is the key to success."
Engineers should be asking, he added, "How long can I whip this horse before it really is out of date?"
A further trend forcing designers to layer over hardware with software applications is the need to integrate different devices in a single environment. The panelists' example was the dashboard of a car, which is fast becoming a display screen, offering everything from audio and video to engine diagnostics, satellite navigation and traffic alerts. Designing hardware that effectively stitches together the various elements of this electronic dash in every make and model is a recipe for confusion.
Said Graff of National Instruments, "A range of devices, all functional in there, can't meet time-to-market unless there is a measure of integration in those components," integration that requires "a lot more focus on design of software."
Circling back around to the genius of iPhone, Portelligent's Carey compared Moore's Law to its consumer alter ego, "Demi Moore's Law." Although digital electronics can indeed double capacity and power every 18 months, said Carey, "the user's ability to take on all this technology" can't keep up. "Our brain does not double every 18 months."
He noted that while many of Apple's competitors in the mobile phone industry struggle to keep pace with Moore's Law, flooding the market with new models and new applications faster than consumers can absorb the "innovations," Apple has moved "very slowly," offering only two or three variations in its basic product since its inception.
"Apple is very satisfied to go very slowly, shipping its product and very slowly bringing the consumer along," he said. "Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up."
