And the Survey sa ys…
A few months back we asked you to give us your candid views on Mac|Life, to learn what you really want from the mag — a pretty standard reader survey. We haven’t canvassed opinion for a few years now, so I was excited to get your thoughts. All 788 of them. That might not seem a big deal when our readership is about 40 times that figure. But in relative terms it’s still a huge response (industry analysts would love that kind of return), and that’s why it’s taken a while to sift through all your responses and comments.
Thankfully, it appears the majority of you are happy with the way the magazine is headed, which is good news. But you won’t hear a sigh of relief from me, because clearly, the majority of you also think there’s room to improve.
Though there were lots of interesting points, overwhelmingly, most of you are not keen on the number of games reviews we publish. As a recently new father, I sympathize, because I don’t have the time, nor the inclination to play games myself anymore; there are better things to do with one’s precious time. So first up: I’ve curtailed the games a touch. I was surprised the survey also suggested most of you don’t use your devices for more creative outlets, such as video editing, with a preference towards productivity–focused tasks, like document editing. Again, I’ll work to minimize these. Home Life and Apple Watch/TV reviews also came under fire, which isn’t a total shock since they’re still quite new areas of tech, but fret not — I’ve already slimmed these sections, so there’s more room to focus on the things you really want, like this issue’s new addition: the ‘Best of’ section (p66), a neat compilation of Mac|Life’s favorite hardware and apps. And there’s more coming next month, with the Start section getting a lick of paint, making it more practical and accessible.
I think you’ll agree that one thing we don’t need to change is our features. This month: our Genius Handbook shows you how to fix common problems on your Mac (p16) while our roundup of 33 power apps (p30) shows you how to make it even better!