| |
Most product quality problems exist between terminal and chair
by Decius at 11:49 am EST, Mar 6, 2006 |
Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices, a scientist said on Monday.
|
| |
RE: Most product quality problems exist between terminal and chair
by noteworthy at 7:51 pm EST, Mar 6, 2006 |
The average consumer in the United States will struggle for 20 minutes to get a device working, before giving up, the study found.
Maybe it's time to augment the "Computer Science 101" course that is mandatory at many universities today. It should include an assignment in which the student must get an application developed for Linux to compile on OS X. Surely this exercise would increase the average consumer's tolerance for technology-induced pain. (It would also give them much-needed practice in cursing at developers ...) |
|
Most product quality problems exist between terminal and chair
by Delta Punch at 1:12 pm EST, Mar 12, 2006 |
Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices, a scientist said on Monday.
What do you think about that? |
| |
RE: Most product quality problems exist between terminal and chair
by shinai at 12:17 am EST, Mar 27, 2006 |
Delta Punch wrote: Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices, a scientist said on Monday.
What do you think about that?
I think that our metal bookshelf from Home Depot really WAS badly designed. There's no way that was our fault! (or was it??) |
|
Most product quality problems exist between terminal and chair
by k at 4:57 pm EST, Mar 6, 2006 |
Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices, a scientist said on Monday.
Hard to say if I'm more aligned with the title of the meme or the position of the story. There is an abundance of poor product design out there. But there's also an abundance of impatient and ignorant humanity. It's obvious to anyone who has worked in software development that the last thing you want is developers designing interfaces. We don't think like the users will, and what makes perfect sense to us, and our like-minded friends, will be incomprehensible to normal humans. It doesn't surprise me particularly that other industries are finding out the same thing. Time to start hiring human interface experts who understand how people want to interact with their environment, I guess. |
|
|
