Disclaimer: Although I work for a company that deals with audiobooks, these thoughts, comments, complaints, and affirmations are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer.

While I was listening to some of my audiobooks on my Zune HD at work today, I noticed that something changed (or that for as much complaining as I do about this, no one ever pointed it out to me).

So let's say you have some audiobooks on your Zune HD.

1. Turn on your Zune HD.
2. Touch "audiobooks".
3. Press one of the titles to bring up the "Pin to Quickplay" menu.

Do you see it? What's that option underneath it? Is it really... a Delete option?

I couldn't believe that I was seeing it. But I upgraded my Zune HD's firmware over the weekend, so maybe it's one of the cool new features in the new firmware.

Thankfully, I had an audiobook that I needed to delete. So here's what I did...

1. Start up OverDrive Media Console.
2. Start the transfer wizard to get into the Advanced Options and Browse the files.
3. Verify that there are files for that audiobook on the Zune HD.
4. On the device, get to the "audiobooks" list.
5. Bring up the menu I mentioned above and press Delete.
6. Confirm the delete.
7. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
8. Verify that those files are no longer there.

Finally... an easy way to delete audiobooks from the Zune HD!

There's still no option in the software to manage audiobooks, but now we can simply delete them from the device.

Way to go, Zune HD team!

Labels: audiobooks, Zune HD

Note: This is just a complaint on an incomplete feature that happens to apply also to the Zune HD. I will blog separately on the Zune HD experience as a whole after spending a week or so with it. Here's hoping the overall experience is as awesome as the video clarity!

So I've recently gotten a Zune HD (as in the UPS guy dropped it off today). One of the first things I had to check was the Zune HD interface to see if it was any better for audiobooks.

Obviously, they don't design Zunes with audiobooks in mind. Or if they do, the testers have been sleeping on that feature since the Zune 3.0 release.

Honestly, it kills me to see that they took the time to add the feature in the Zune 3.0 software but they didn't put in a fully-managed audiobook system. You can easily transfer audiobooks through a 3rd party step-by-step wizard to the device, and they appear in an "audiobooks" list on the device. But there's no simple way to delete the files. It's nice to listen to audiobooks on a Zune device, but it's a lot of work to clear off audiobooks from the device. (Yes, the Zune HD needs to go through the same non-intuitive process that I've linked to in the past Zune + Audiobooks = SUX posts.)

Maybe the Zune will come around with a fully-managed audiobook system in Zune 5.0? I won't hold my breath. But as a friend once said, audiobooks are the Achilles heel of the Zunes - and it still holds true, even with the Zune HD.

Labels: audiobooks, SUX, Zune

It isn't a good sign when I revive the Sarah on User eXperience acronym - but sometimes there are bad user experiences that really deserve the SUX label.

Disclaimer: I hate writing disclaimers, but I need to make sure that you understand that these are my personal experiences and my personal thoughts. My employer is not responsible for my posts. Also for the record, I am active in the Microsoft community, and this isn't meant to be an anti-Microsoft post. This is a call to action for them.

I love listening to audiobooks on my Zune. My recent experience though has me a bit dismayed about the whole process, and I hope Microsoft can get this straightened out.

When I download audiobooks from my local library, I can transfer the audiobooks to my Zune thanks to Zune firmware 3.0, which supports OverDrive audiobooks. But what the firmware seems to support is the transfer to the Zune. Deleting expired audiobooks from the Zune is a different story, and hence the reason for my dismay.

With my Zune, there seems to be a step missing. I use the OverDrive software to transfer to my Zune, but the delete process isn't obvious. The audiobook experience with the Zune is like Hotel California - you can check out but you can never leave. You can expire, but you can never delete - at least at a first glance.

After a long time poking around on Live Search, I came across this process on how to delete the expired audiobooks. I apparently must get the OverDrive transfer wizard to a point where I can Browse the device and then delete each file individually. So I need to initiate a transfer in order to delete something - this alone is counterintuitive. But at the same time, the OverDrive software is just to transfer to the device - why doesn't the Zune software have the ability to remove the audiobooks from the audiobooks section of the device?

When you have a lot of audiobook files - like the numerous files behind Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", in addition to some L.A. Theatre Works productions - this process is tedious and drawn out. If I have gripes about this user experience, I can only imagine the headaches of the non-technical user.

Microsoft dropped the ball in this case. The other devices out there provide ways for deleting audiobooks - be it through their own software or through Windows Explorer. With the Zune, neither path is available.

So Zune software devs, I have a suggestion for you. You know that section of the Zune software where you can see music, videos, pictures, podcasts, friends, and channels - how about adding a section there called "audiobooks" with the delete functionality so that Zune users can easily delete expired audiobooks from their Zunes?

Until this counterintuitive and frustrating process is addressed, I will stick to audiobooks on my non-Zune devices (laptops, desktops, netbooks, and other media players). I look forward to Microsoft adding the functionality to their Zune software to delete audiobooks so that I can eventually go back to listening to audiobooks on my Zune.

Labels: audiobooks, SUX, Zune