A while back, I bought an Olympus WS-853 digital audio recorder. I bought this for a specific functional use case (the details of which are irrelevant here) rather than the absolute best audio quality. Having used it a few times now, I’ve come to appreciate a couple of its “secondary” features and wish that more products included this type of focus on usability.

The audio specs on this device are fine for its purpose. It’s billed as a “digital voice recorder”, which (to me) means that it’s for personal recordings like voice memos, lecture recordings to supplement notes, etc. rather than for a pro audio setup where you intend to publish the recording as a final product. What’s more interesting to me is the built-in USB plug that allows you to access the built-in storage and charge the batteries (if using rechargeables). Assuming that your computer has a USB-A port on it, you don’t need any other accessories in order to use this recorder. It can record internally or onto a microSD card, and plugging it directly into your computer mounts both of these storage devices as a browseable system – no memory card adapters needed here. It’s a bit of an older product, so it doesn’t have anything like USB-C fast charging, but it runs off of two AAA batteries. As long as you have replacement batteries handy, the device isn’t going to be out of commission for long. And this brings me to perhaps my favorite feature of this recorder: if you set the battery type to NiMH in the system settings, it will charge the batteries internally when plugged into a USB port. If I want a dedicated recorder with as few additional accessories required as possible, this one fits that bill.

This recorder isn’t some class-leading device, and as I said earlier, it’s not something I’d choose for any pro audio needs, but it has a level of thought put into its usability that I wish was more common. Small details add up quickly here, and I want more of my gadgets and appliances to take this kind of approach to their designs. I have too many things that have built-in batteries, easily-lost charging cables, and non-expandable storage. Usability and tech specs shouldn’t inherently need to compete with each other, but I find myself valuing usability more these days than I perhaps used to.