Is the iPod iNtuitive?

I'll start by giving the obligatory priming for people ready to bash the article: I have an iPod, I think it's the best mp3 player on the market, I have a Mac Pro and I love it.

But to me, the iPod is not intuitive if you've never seen it used before. In fact, I still press the wrong buttons a lot.

Lets pretend I already have my music on my iPod. We'll come back how annoying it is to transfer music.

All of my music is playing at the moment. Song 1 of 1342. A for... Amy Winehouse. Yep, that's right, I was lucky enough to hear her music before I heard about her. I like the 50s, big band sound. But, as usual, I'm in the mood for some Mars Volta.

I press the menu button to access the... menu. Good. I rotate my thumb around the circle down to Artists. Artists is highlighted and an arrow at the end of the line tells me that the list of Artists are located, symbolically, to the right - like the start menu in Windows. Simple. I press the right arrow. It goes to the next Amy Winehouse song. Wtf?

Oh, I need to press the center, circle button. Good good, now I'm scrolling down to The Mars Volta. Hmm, they aren't under T. Ah, they don't count 'The.' I agree. Oops, I scrolled up too fast and selected Marshal Mathers free style. That's embarrassing. I press the back arrow to go back. Amy Winehouse restarts. Fuck. How do I go back?

Oh, I need to press the menu button. That makes sense. . I don't really want to listen to any more Amy Winehouse. I press the center button to access the Mars Volta albums. Ok. I want to listen to all of their albums, how do I do that? Well, Play All is highlighted, so I press play. Well, at least Amy Winhouse stopped. Oh, it paused it.

I think I understand, now. The menu is simply on top of the songs that are playing. You know, I'm just not the kinda guy that enjoys perusing my iPod menu. I don't want or care to pause, skip forward and skip backward. I just want to stop listening to Mrs. Winehouse. Please, go back to rehab.

I like the whole Back to Black album except the first song, Rehab. I don't know, it's just annoying; too repetitive. Turns out it's a grammy award winning single. Sigh, I'll never be part of the masses.

Turns out, I'm not in the mood for Mars Volta. I press menu to access the menu. Just kidding, I am in the mood for them. Now, how do I exit the menu? Um Only time will tell...

You know what brightens my day? When you pull your iPod out of your bookbag and see that it's halfway through song 130 of every song in your iPod because you forgot to lock it. It has been playing for half a day and only has a red sliver of life left. Maybe I won't work out today

Trying to get music on your iPod is such a pain! I know not everyone is a computer savvy, technology nerd. I mean, not everyone knows how to plug their iPod. Wait. Not everyone knows how to open a folder. Wait. Not everyone knows how to drag a song into a music folder. Wait. Not everyone WANTS TO MAKE A PLAYLIST AND COPY ALL OF THEIR SONGS INTO IT, OR JUST CERTAIN SONGS, MAYBE THESE SONGS, NOT THOSE SONGS, NO I'LL MAKE ANOTHER PLAYLIST, ITS COOL I'LL JUST SYNC IT ALL, NO, MAYBE I'LL JUST LOSE ALL MY SONGS WHEN USING SOMEONE ELSES COMPUTER. Wait?

That's my list of negative iPod design elements. To be fair, I'll mention something I LOVE about the iPod. Whenever your headphones accidently pop out, the music pauses for you. That makes me happy.