I know this topic has been brought up before, and I even once got an answer from a Steinberg rep here admitting that the situation isn’t optimal and that “they are working on it”, but as this is now some years ago and nothing has happened yet, I’ll bring it up again.
Let’s be honest: the current triumvirate of Steinberg Download Manager, Steinberg Activation Manager and Steinberg Library Manager is a usability mess… yes, I personally get along with it, because I am used to, but it is so often that we have topics here on this forum with new people being confused, irritated, not knowing what to do, experiencing errors and so on. And I can understand that. Three apps to manage software from the same vendor, all looking and behaving differently. This is not good UX.
The whole procedure of installing, activating and managing a software should be as easy and seamless as possible for the user.
There should be of course only one app that does everything: downloading, activating, managing. I was all set up to try to do a UI mockup, but then noticed that I actually have an example of a software manager installed that is a really positive example of good design: the Arturia Software Center:
This does a lot of things right:
- easy navigation bar on the left, including the online status and a big obvious button to “register a new product”.
- All the products in the content pane come with a short description, show the current version and the activation status. If there is an immediate action for an item available, like “update” or “activate”, you can just click it.
- With a click on one item, a detail window is opened with a long description and release notes, a link to the manual and all possible actions: update, uninstall, deactivate, clean preferences.
- Oh, and there is a search bar.
- The whole UI design is clear, modern and looks a lot like a web page that users are familiar with navigating.
Now, for Steinberg of course there needs to be an extra tab for “library”- or “content”-management. This could be an additional item in the navigation bar, and/or an extra tab in the respective product’s detail window.
Lastly: “Download Access Code”? I have never encountered this term with regards to software licensing anywhere else. First rule of good UX: don’t reinvent the wheel, use whatever conventions already exists for a topic. This should be named “license code” or “activation code”.
