[thechat] Badly designed products (WAS: Star Trek Enterprise)

[Madhu Menon]

At 01:40 AM 10/17/2001, you wrote:
>Not only that, I've been away from home for 18 months now and my Mom still
>hasn't figured out how to change the answering machine message.

This is a sad testament to the fact that most consumer appliances are badly 
designed. I was once in a hotel where the TV exhibited some weird 
behaviour. To switch it on, you'd have to press the power on switch and 
hold it down for three seconds. I don't know what the designers were 
thinking ("let's make sure he doesn't *accidently* turn it on"?), but I 
kept pressing it and it just wouldn't turn on. The hotel staff then showed 
me how to make it work.

Oh, I could go on for hours about badly designed products (I earn a living 
doing it after all), but fortunately, Don Norman has already done it for 
me. His book, "the Psychology of Everyday Things" is required reading for 
anyone involved in product design or interface design of any kind. And 
especially for people who think, "I'm not smart enough to use this 
answering machine". You'll be relieved ;)

Obligatory Amazon link: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q1B16161

Regards,

Madhu

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Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net

Weblog: http://madman.weblogs.com