KISS 636
andyring writes "CNN has an interesting article about the increasing trend in electronics to add more and more features, less concise user manuals, and poor marketing, to products, which end up doing nothing more than increasing costs and frustrating users. As an example in the article, most people want cell phones that do one thing - make calls. Yet phones come with games, instant messaging, cameras, etc. You can't even buy a simple cell phone any more. Also cited, 25% of people think they own an HDTV, when the actual number is less than 10%. What can be done to make manufacturers get their heads into the real world?"
two words (Score:2, Insightful)
Learn to live by them.
Re:two words (Score:3, Funny)
Anyone else finds it atleast a bit amusing that someone can make a long post filled with nums and figures about an article that discusses the KISS principle ?
Re:two words (Score:5, Interesting)
These are options that have been available on cameras for approximately 100 years.
I mean, we have gotten to the point where if technology does not simplify our lives to a ridiculous degree, we blame the technology, even if technology is giving us the same exact features we've always had! What was fine before suddenly becomes burdensome simply because it's digital and our expectations are different. Do we expect to have fewer features in digital products than we did in analog, simply because we're too stupid or impatient to read a damn manual? It seems that way.
I'd like to keep my long exposure, manual focus, forced flash and aperture modes, thanks. I am happy camera makers are continuing to provide these as options on some models and are even filtering them down to less expensive consumer cameras. Not every product needs to pander to the lowest common denominator.
Re:two words (Score:3, Insightful)
Let engineers design the IC's and real designers build the interface us mouth-breathers can actually use efficiently.
Case in point: What kind of rain-man type thought 3 different HDTV resolutions would be a good idea??? This is a TV for !@&@#$-sake. On/ Channel UP/Down/Volume are all I need with a picture that looks great with automatic settings.
It's gotta work for me and joe six without needing to
Re:two words (Score:5, Insightful)
The story isn't about cheap-ass phones that break, but about phones that have features that are so poorly implemented that 95% of the users are unable to make use of them, and/or features that 99% of their users don't need or want.
I think a lot of the problem is the rush to market with something new, regardless of actual utility. "We have to have the 2005 line designed by Thursday, and we need a feature the competition doesn't have. Let's have a micro-motorized skin that pulses along its length, allowing it to crawl across the table like a worm!" "Why would we do that?" "Because Sony-Ericsson hasn't done it yet!!!"
So regardless of "what" the function is, or how consumers might use it, it gets thrown into the device. This is most evident in cell phones, where it seems every phone has a calculator, an appointment calendar, a stopwatch, a diving computer, a pedometer, and an altimeter. And the manufacturers trumpet these alleged features as if they add value, when in reality all they do is clutter the interface and suck electrons.
My ideal cell phone would be a small brick I keep clipped to my belt, next to my leatherman. A bluetooth headset would allow me to talk, and my Tungsten would allow me to surf. The phone would still have a speaker, microphone and keypad so I could use it "in manual mode" if I didn't have the headset with me. A screen displaying ten digits would be nice, but optional. And I guess I'd like some kind of powered-on indicator, although the position of an "on-off" switch could suffice.
I find it almost criminal for a phone to have a "backdrop" picture, or a "screen saver", or even color. All these "features" do is to draw down battery power, and add to the visual clutter. They don't make my "phoning experience" easier or faster or more enjoyable. I really don't want a "phoning experience" -- I just want a fucking phone that I can call my wife and tell her I'm going to the Chinese place and ask her if she wants wontons with her cashew chicken!!
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong, (but I seriously doubt it.)
one word: design (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll give you one word: design.
The quote at the end of the article gets it right: "The simpler it looks," Nielsen said, "the harder it is to build." Great design exudes simplicity, but it's surprising hard to get right. The iPod did a good job, by focusing on making music, and music alone, available through a simple interface. (I despaired to find you could maintain a calendar and play games on an iPod, but who does that? Fortunately these unnecessary features didn't interfere with the design too much.) My DirecTV DVR gets it mostly right too -- I shudder to think of all the things they could have added (partial show recording? a trashcan? games?) and I'm glad they didn't.
On the other hand (and as the article points out) every cellphone I've seen in the last two years has been a failure. The failure is not in QA, and it's not in documentation. It's certainly not in the user. The failure is in design.
Re:two words (Score:5, Insightful)
The current unit also has a deep hatred of the Sci-Fi channel. If we tune it to Sci-Fi, it shuts itself off. If we tape a Sci-Fi channel show on another VCR and try to play it on ours, it again shuts itself off. Weird.
Re:A couple more words... (Score:3, Insightful)
I spent my college years working food service (waiting tables, bartending), and retail sales. When you have to deal with the general public, you really get your eyes opened as to the high level of stupidity out there. From complex
Re:two words (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, no Macrovision, and it survived a PB&J sammich and a few crayons as well.
Sure I can watch video on my cell, but have you ever tried looking a person up to call them in the menu?
Re:two words (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:two words (Score:5, Funny)
Or maybe I am just a jaded IT guy?
Maybe jaded against the particular hardware you work with. We have failures among our ~300 PCs every so often, hard disks mainly. The Sun, SGI and (sole) HP machine are damn tanks. When Sol goes red giant in 3 billion years, there will be 4 SGI Origins floating around in space wondering where users went.
RTFM? (Score:5, Insightful)
Cell phones have become so fragmented, as most carriers offer multiple handsets with a variety of features which appeal to differing tastes. However, I still refuse to buy a new phone because my carrier still hasn't offered a phone that meets my specific needs. All I want is a good, small, clamshell, tri-mode phone from Verizon with built-in Bluetooth. I could care less about a camera, I already invested in a digital camera with a better resolution, and there seems to be a lot of anti-camera phone sentiment. When I went to get my passport renewed, people had to surrender their batteries.
In terms of user manuals. It's not like a lot of people read them anyway...that's like asking people to read the articles prior to reply here on slashdot. Look at all the good detailed instructions did for getting baby-boomers to program their VCR or time display.
How many software packages actually come with a full set of documentation anymore these days - it's like we are expected to go out any buy the user manual.
HDTV is a tough subject, because the industry has done such a poor job on rolling out HDTV. Not just the manufacturers, but also the stations, cable companies and the damned FCC. But you would think you would know whether or not you have HDTV after seeing what 1080i looks like.
The competing formats of DVD is equally confusing. My father-in-law made the mistake of buying DVD+R discs only to find out that he needed -R for his drive.
Re:RTFM? (Score:5, Interesting)
A flashlight would be cool, though. It would require minimal extra lighting. The phone battery is more than capable of driving an excellent LED light. I actually *need* a flashlight on a regular basis, and I always have my phone with me. It seems like a perfect match.
Re:RTFM? (Score:2)
It's not quite on purpose, but still.
Re:RTFM? (Score:5, Funny)
And you call yourself a nerd!
Re:RTFM? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:RTFM? (Score:3, Informative)
Feaping Creaturism (Score:5, Insightful)
"What does this phone do?"
"Well, it makes calls, stores your phone book, and has this nifty flashlight."
I could see more people asking WHY the phone has a flashlight than thinking it to be a "Good Feature". Most folks would consider it an unneeded 'bell and whistle' feature that creates an excuse to charge $50 more for the phone. As opposed to:
"Well, it makes calls, stores your phone numbers, coordinates with your computer, plays games in full color, takes pictures of anything you see fit to take pictures of, sends them to any email address, allows you to play games whenever you are bored or want to spend sone time, lets you send an IM to unobtrusively keep in touch with your coleagues on the go, allows you to play realistic-sounding music for your ring tones, or even record your OWN sound for your ringer..." (And of course 50 other features that sound cool).
Now, see? THIS would strike people as "It does all that for only $99?! COOL!"... However, being able to -USE- all that without a doctorate is another matter for some folks.
Overall, it's simple: The more things they can put on paper under the "features" section, the more likely folks are to buy it if the price is decent, and they think the features will be fun. They never give the DETAILS of the features that would cause people to reconsider.
For example, when I worked for T-Mobile, I had to explain to folks that yes, they could "download" their address book to their phone, like it said in the features, but they had to do it two entries at a time from the T-Mobile web site. Oh, yes, and it used a SMS message to send each entry (At cost, oftentimes). And of course, nothing quite as fun as dealing with an upset parent whose daughter had used 13,000 SMS Text messages in one month by using AIM on her phone... It seems so SIMPLE, and easy to use... and makes a huge bill.
Overall, people are interested in INTERESTING bells and whistles. "I can get a digital camera for $199 or I can get a PHONE with a diital camera and all these other features for $150...", and a flashlight is not considered 'Interesting' to most people. ("I can get a flashlight for $5, or a phone with one for $150...")
Re:Feaping Creaturism (Score:3, Funny)
I see you have clearly never worked in techsupport at a university. :)
A note on the bygone simplicty of software (Score:4, Interesting)
So, whoever said it is right, phones are getting more complex. This is probably ok if you really think about it.
CD players aren't really, and the same goes for VCRs and DVD players. They can all now be had very very cheaply in their most simple form. This is, I think, a good thing. One might argue, they've been around longer as consumer appliances and they've figured KISS out.
But, I'm not seeing a whole lot of KISS in the software world. Especially in the Windows world.
With the exception of most decent and I mean really decent *nix software, most software seems to have gone on a sugar and steroid fad diet for nearly the past few decade.
Ever see MSDOS 2.2 run on a multi gighertz modern machine? Try it. It's scary fast. What happened?
Ten years ago I used to setup internet stuff in people houses for a local ISP. It was a good way to make $100/hr as it really didn't take more than 45 minutes anyway. I carried around Netscape on one flopy, Eudora, Trumpet Winsock, ftp, telnet and talk on the other floppy.
Quark was 3 megs. Then it was 7 megs. Now it's 300. Is it 100x better? Fuck no, it's not even as good.
Fit enough for an internet setup on a floppy? I'm not sure you could get it to fit on one CD these days.
If any of you out there actually write this stuff: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? HAVE YOU NO PRIDE?
"Hello World!" Shouldn't be 7 frikkin megs because you're pulling in God knows what class libraries, this can be 42 byte program if you really try.
I swear Windows apps had to go through 3 or 4 generations of hardware upgrades just to get back to as fast as they were before they all went "true 32 bit" and I cringe at the prospect of 64 and maybe even 128 bit apps.
One of the computers I use is a W98 system on fairly contemporary hardware. I still use 3 or 4 16-bit Windows programs I've been carrying with me for over a decade now. They're small, fast do what I want and nothing more.
And all 3 fit on one floppy with room to spare.
I dunno about thit object oriented class library stuff, I really don't know. I wish more people would learn assembler below the C level than keep wanting to go above it with "easier" and "more powerful" languages; I think it's ill advised.
Short term pain for long term gain: you should probably suffer writing software so I don't have to when using it.
Nice going, guys. (Score:3, Informative)
Also encouraging is things like Operas archive [opera.com] where you can still get an award winningly small (gads, only 3.4M) browser.
So I dunno if I share the doom and gloom of the article. To some extent eveythings eventually ends up in it's simplest and most efficient form because we aren't the only ones here that want KISS.
Re:RTFM? (Score:5, Insightful)
If it requires a manual, then it is too complicated for consumer sale.
Re:RTFM? (Score:3, Interesting)
After reading the book "The Design of Everyday Things" (ISBN 0465067107 [wikipedia.org]) it seems that there is less involved in an intuitive interface than one might think. The main problem is that seldom is there any thought put into how to make something intuitive-- inste
Re:RTFM? (Score:5, Funny)
Pet rocks came with a manual.
My pet rock did not come with a manual. I'm still trying to fiigure out how to feed the damn thing.
Re:RTFM? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:RTFM? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've gotten sick of trying to figure out all the features on electronic devices... or worse, helping my wife with hers. I've got a phone that has all kinds of cool stuff, some of which I actually use, 'cause it's there, but at the end of the day, I use the thing to call people, and if every other feature not related to making phone calls were taken away, I wouldn't care.
Re:RTFM? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:RTFM? (Score:2, Insightful)
So you do care about having a cam on your phone?
Re:RTFM? (Score:2)
Re:RTFM? (Score:3, Insightful)
I just want a simple, non-clamshell, ruggedised phone. Something that won't break when it hits the pavement from a few feet off the ground, or that will still work after bouncing down three flights of cement stairs. Something to replace my again Panasonic TX-220.
Do they make anything like this anymore??? Not that I've found. Everything is now so flimsy I'd be afraid to toss it onto my bed, let alone my desk.
Re:RTFM? (Score:3, Insightful)
If all the phones didn't have all that crap, and all the service providers actually competed, maybe we'd be paying $20 - $30 less per month than we are now.
Put more information on your website! (Score:5, Insightful)
Every product manual should be on the website in PDF!
Even the products that are ten to fifteen years old!
For an example of the best example of providing info, look at Yamaha. They have scanned every manual for every music synthesizer model and variation that they have made and have put these scans (in PDF format) on their web site for free download. Considering that this is refers to several hundred models each with manuals that have several hundred pages, this is incredible customer support!! I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Yamaha musical instrument new or used, for fear that I couldn't operate it.
Plus they did it knowing that it would take years to pay off in additional sales. Great company.
Now for the chumps! Fry's Electronics gets the price here. Every product , yes every product in the store should have a manual on-line on their website.
And,
Every product that they have ever sold in the past ten years should have the manual on their web site. Plus, there should be links to information that people always need to know when they buy stuff there. Like, what type of memory does this motherboard that is on sale this week use? And, 'Can I use this other type of memory for the motherboard that I bought at Fry's three years ago?'.
Usually at Fry's, nobody knows what the answer to your question is. So people buy the wrong product, can't figure out how to get it working, scoop up most of the parts, and bring it back for a refund. Then they put most of the parts back in the box, put shrinkwrap cellophane around it, and stick it back on the shelves at full price.
The only way to tell if the product at Fry's is a dud is by the ratio of returned units to the previously unsold ones. If half the boxes are user returns, don't buy it or you too will probably be back to return it. Like the saying goes: 'A trip to Fry's is two trips to Fry's'.
This monkeyshit mentality wouldn't be so bad if you're not driving fifteen miles each way.
And they could reduce this nonsense by demanding that each supplier provide a manual in PDF form and a list of FAQ that could be put on the Fry's website before the product goes on sale there.
But would they do it, no ef'in way. They just don't give a fuck!
So what't the point?
MORE DOCUMENTATION!
Re:Put more information on your website! (Score:3, Insightful)
The point of the article is that most gadgets these days are unusable, despite the documentation. And you think this problem can be fixed with more documentation? Sheesh.
The problem is lack of design, not lack of documentation.
Re:Put more information on your website! (Score:3, Insightful)
Ever try taking a page with 3 diagrams or pictures on it and converting it to HTML quickly while retaining the formatting? Now do t
Re:RTFM? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nail. Head. Hit. Typical example:
Salesdrone: "Sir, HDTV is totally awesomer than analog TV because it's... umm... it's digital! Don't you like that word digital? Look! We have all the TVs on this wall hooked up to a digital broadcast! And here's our digital TV! My boss trained me to say that all by myself!"
Joe Sixpack: looks at wall of analog and digital TVs. Sees big blocks around everything that moves as a result of dumb-ass cable companies using extremely high compression factors on their digital. Sees the same big blocks at 1080i. Says "Huh? My rabbit ears give me a better picture!" and walks away. :)
Don't be led astray by things you don't need. (Score:5, Insightful)
What can be done to make manufacturers get their heads into the real world?
Like most businesses, they listen to only one thing: their bottom line. If you don't need a camera on your phone (and, frankly, who does?) then don't spend the extra few bucks on it. Make sure you tell the person why. There will certainly be some trickle effect of what is said, whether to management, at trade shows or in the media.
Unfortunately you have the KeepingUpWithTheJoneses factor to deal with: Jones(A) gets a new phone with games. Not to be outdone, Jones(B) gets a phone with games and a camera. Jones(C) gets a phone with games and a higher-resolution camera.. Repeat ad infinitum.
This isn't intended soley as potshots against camera phones but against the "Faster, Smaller, Better" upgrade cycle that these manufacturers impose on the consumers. Remember that every dollar you spend is after-tax money. Now think about how much that shiny new widget will really cost before you walk to the cash register. You need the money more than they do.
Re:Don't be led astray by things you don't need. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately you have the KeepingUpWithTheJoneses factor to deal with: Jones(A) gets a new phone with games. Not to be outdone, Jones(B) gets a phone with games and a camera. Jones(C) gets a phone with games and a higher-resolution camera.. Repeat ad infinitum.
Not quite. My brother used to work at Microsoft, and he once commented on something that I've carried with me in my career. It's not that the customers are in a "keeping up with the Jones'" mode, but the vendors are.
Example: Microsoft didn't add a grammar checker to Word because the customers were demanding one. In fact, the first MS grammar checker was worthless. (I haven't used MS products in years .. I don't know if it's improved since.) Microsoft added one to Word (version 4.0?) because WordPerfect had added a grammar checker. Microsoft didn't want to look like they also didn't have the features.
Phones are the same way: "It's a phone with a tiny web browser in it." / "We can do web, and we'll add mini-games." / "Okay, we'll do games, but ours are in color." / "We'll also add colors, and we'll support java." / "Now let's add a low-res camera." / "We'll add a hi-res camera too - and also walkie talkie." And so on. Pretty soom, everyone will have a little inkjet printer in their phone, just because the vendors are trying to keep up with each other.
Another way to look at it: if everyone has the same basic features as everyone else, then the product that "wins" isn't necessarily the best product - it's the product that sucks the least.
Re:Don't be led astray by things you don't need. (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What can be done. (Score:2)
Re:What can be done. (Score:2)
Consider the following situations...
Buying coffee in a coffee shop. All I want is plain coffee with milk and sugar. No latte , no expresso, No mocca , no nothing . just plain coffee with milk and sugar damn it. Unfortunately the 5+@rbuck5 salesgirl never understands this.
Or odered something over the phone. Say like a digital camera. you buy a camera worth 200$ and the guy wants you to sell accessor
Re:What can be done. (Score:2, Funny)
example in practice (Score:5, Interesting)
audiophile quality,
least restrictive DRM,
6 buttons,
iPod.
Of course, on the other hand:
Re:example in practice (Score:2)
Re:example in practice (Score:2)
AAC, as improved as it is over mp3, is still far below it's CD Audio source. Even CDs are no longer audiophile quality as high resolution audio discs gain popularity. CDs are for the average joe, when you say Audiophile quality, you should really be speaking of 2 channel 192/24 DVD-Audio and SACD.
Your point is still taken, I just felt the need to nitpick.
Re:example in practice (Score:3, Interesting)
On the original topic, most of the direct competitors of the iPod have more features [FM radio, more formats, etc.] but overall people care more about what it's like to actually use the thing. I've noticed that iPod purchases seem to happen in clusters where someone in a group of people will get one and by letting other people
Re:example in practice (Score:3, Insightful)
10k songs, good sound
least restrictive DRM
6 buttons -- iPod.
Re:example in practice (Score:3, Insightful)
Hold down play for 3 seconds!
How do you go to a previous menu?
Press menu
How do you go to the next menu?
Press the button in the center of the dial
How do you change the volume?
With the scroll wheel*
*as long as the display is showing the current song and it's not showing the song's rating or the progress bar (in which case you press the middle button until you see the volume, and THEN you use the scroll wheel)
How do I plug it into the wall?
Use the firewire port -- duh!?!
Don't g
Re:iPod kind of kludgey (Score:3, Interesting)
Wait, dragging a file to the trash will delete it. So won't dragging a disk to the trash delete the disk?
The Mac UI is not the most consistant thing in the universe.
KISS (Score:4, Funny)
(Damn, I've been waiting forever for a flimsy excuse to link to that page.)
I don't *want* concise user manuals (Score:5, Insightful)
Include a quickstart guide with your gear. Good idea.
But for God's sake, don't forget about the concise user manual. I hate buying new gear and not getting a good manual with it. The manual should explain everything the unit can do in every configuration.
If they want to make a simple quickstart guide too, that's great, but don't leave out the full-blown details.
Re:I don't *want* concise user manuals (Score:2)
Obviously I meant "don't forget about the full user manual". Dammit, I even previewed.
Re:I don't *want* concise user manuals (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, sell us a nipple! Most intuitive interface ever!
That little touch pad on the iPod's are pretty damn close. BUT NOT CLOSE ENOUGH!!
WE WANT NIPPLES!
Manufacturers are doing what they're supposed to (Score:5, Interesting)
Um, ok. So, let me get this straight. You want these manufacturers to _not_ take advantage of the people dumb enough to believe they are buying something else. Those 15% of the people that think that they have an HDTV, probably bought something that was overpriced, and might end up buying equipment that would only work to it's fullest with a HDTV system. They're making money off of the stupid. I don't expect them to change. While it would be moral and nice of them to, but since when is capitalism moral and nice? It's about money, and if someone wants to give it to them, they will take it.
Re:Manufacturers are doing what they're supposed t (Score:3, Insightful)
So you think that that's not enough? Well, I'm sorry, but I can't see any simpler way that the TV's could be advertised. Maybe you could draw a line in the sand between "HDTV Television Set" and "HDTV-ready Television Set", but you know w
more and more features... (Score:5, Funny)
And they make phones harder to use (Score:2)
It is not just Nokia. There are portable phones that actually have the buttons in curving rows. Why make it harder to do the "dialing numbers" part of using a phone?
EDTV instead of HDTV? (Score:2)
What all these gadgets really need is something like the Mac OS "Simple Finder", which hides all the extra goodies if you don't need them.
Mixed messages ? (Score:2)
"Also cited, 25% of people think they own an HDTV, when the actual number is less than 10%"
Surely this is consumer ignorance, not manufacturers putting extra "doohicky's" in there ?
Simon.
Re:Mixed messages ? (Score:2)
No, it's manufacturers selling "HD-Ready" televisions, which are really EDTV (480p) not HDTV(720p) and including a 3:2 pulldown filter.
Yes, customers may not completely understand every technical aspect of the purchase. However, manufacturers aren't doing that great of a job publishing realistic specs and educating the customers on what the real deal is, and what's "close enough"
Finding manufacturers' heads (Score:5, Funny)
Have they visited their proctologists lately?
This is an Increasing Trend? (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess I'll never cease to be amazed at the medias propensity to discover the obvious.
Well they could... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes you can!! (Score:2)
Why in my desk drawer alone, I have 3 that I will be more than happy to sell to you.
I think I have an HDTV, therefore I am.
I don't think there's anything that can be done. (Score:2, Insightful)
Usability vs. Simplicity (Score:3, Insightful)
These features are what sell the phones (Score:5, Insightful)
Confusing (Score:2)
I know its wrong but its asking too much if you expect your average consumer to RTFM. Also, if he/she does RTFM, its too much asking for them to be able to figure everything out. How many of us were not confused atleast once while assembling a simple bookshelf and looking at the instructions?
Which reminds me of the "How
Marketing Genius (Score:5, Insightful)
KISS (Score:3, Funny)
Do not add unnecessary features, or we will send Gene Simmons to live in your cubicles for a year.
-The Management
Cell phones DOH (Score:2)
Consumerism in action (Score:3, Insightful)
And we keep buying stuff because the last batch didn't make us happy; we figure if Johnny bought it, and he seems happy about it, that it will make us happy, too. Every advertising dollar spent is attempting to create needs, not serve them.
Buttons (Score:2)
The result is unlabeled buttons that do many different things, depending on the context. Watches are one of the worst for this.
I remember at University that had this old Kodak copier where each setting had its own large, easy to press button that lit up when the setting was on
Making things simpler (Score:2)
"Complexity is intrinsic in technology but simplicity is how we should bring it to the consumer."
Now I agree with this completely, but there's a message in here that I have some reservations about.
I believe in keeping things simple, but hiding complexity is often a double edge sword. Look at the old Mac OS 9 (and prior). The vast majority of complexity was hidden from the user... but to some of us... that meant we were forced to do things the way Apple wanted it done. Now
Marketing (Score:5, Informative)
Fire the marketing department.
No, really. Some marketing genius does a study, asks some set of people "Hey, we can do this really neat thing, do you want it?". Each marketing genius in the department does this. Now the department goes to the C level and says "All our studies say that people want x, y, z, and also w".
Then the engineering dept gets the WORD FROM ABOVE, and creates the product. Instant plethora of features. The product gets built, goes to stores, and the MAJORITY of people say "whoa, too complicated".
Why do you think that Windows has a dumbed down menu set?
Consider (Score:2)
Then, a few manufacturers started to build laptops which, while still heavy and clunky, could last long enough on battery power to do some good word processing. It was still very much a niche product, but now people like business travellers could justify using them on long trips. They bec
On the other hand there are people. . . (Score:3, Interesting)
As an engineer I appreciate simplicity and it's much, much harder to design a simple device that does the same thing as a complicated one.
One of the things I do is design and build human powered machinery. I have a particular fondness for Human Powered Vehicles. I've played around with a lot of front suspension designs, mostly just for fun and personal edification, but the one that's really serious has the entire front suspension whittled down to a single part. Just one. A shaped composite leaf spring with a bit of damping material in its core. The two front wheels (it's a trike, two in front, one in back. Morgan style) basically just get stuck on the ends of the spring.
People who look at my machines completely ignore this lovely bit of work and Ooo and Ahhhh over all the complicated tubular multilink stuff that I put together more as a testbed for formula car suspension systems.
If I were to sell my machines I'd hazard a guess that the complicated beast would outsell the superiour, but simpler machine.
See all those folks out riding the paved roads on 40 pound, double suspension, downhill mountain bikes and wondering why they can't keep up with their friend's rusty old "ten speed"?
KFG
Consumers don't agree on what "simple" is (Score:3, Insightful)
Take a Page from Perl Philosophy (Score:3, Insightful)
It's just like perl philosophy says: "Make the easy things easy, and the hard things possible."
Trivial things like turning on your cell phone should be obvious - you shouldn't need a manual. This should not be compromised in the name of harder things like playing games or browsing the web. It's okay to make the user consult a manual for those.
And if you're supporting those harder things, you must have a comprehensive manual, because the people who want to do the harder things will, in the end, read it.
Negifeatures && planned obsolecense (Score:5, Interesting)
- Less battery life
- Not easily viewable in sunlight
- Not water resistant (even I don't understand this one!)
Manufacturers seem to have forgotten the purpose of mobile phones.Same issue with laptops. I have an pismo laptop from 4 years ago with as much as 10 hours of battery life. If there exists such a system today, I'll buy it but marketeers find it easier to push Ghz, so we get Ghz. This reminds me of radios from the 1960s when boasting "10 transistors" was so important that some manufacturers soldered in dummy transistors!
The trouble is the chip (Score:3, Insightful)
Did you ever spend time in an electronics store looking at the remotes and panel controls and asking "what's this one do"? The salesmen generally don't know. They know how to read you the feature checklist.
But electronics manufacturers would put in better controls if it weren't expensive and hard compared to a minimal number of buttons.
They all have to put in the same (or about same-priced) chip to run the remote or digital watch or cell phone. The chip gives them the feature checklist ("DVD also plays MP3! And WMA!") everything after that is expense with very little selling power.
A wheel to scroll through menus faster? Way more expensive than one button you have to hit over and over and over.
Six buttons and a wheel on your digital watch so each button doesn't need three modes? Extra five dollars to manufacture. And higher failure rate.
We now have an industry full of chips that double in brainpower every two years, but their connections to the outside world remain the same cost. So you have the same four buttons to access 97 features on your digital watch that used to have six features.
None of which explains why my now-dead 1990 Quasar VCR had a brilliant little button where one press meant "record now, current channel, for a half hour" and successive presses upped that to a hour, 90min, 2 hrs, etc. The button beside it, you could hit first, to delay recording to the next even half-hour, 2 presses to an hour, etc. These two buttons handled 98% of my timed-recording needs. Every VCR since has required me to go to a menu to set the start-time to the minute, then the duration to same.
Why did this not become universal? I have no idea. Because they're stupid about human factors?
features==!simple (Score:5, Insightful)
But more to the point.
For years I would only purchase the cheapest possible microwave. Why? Because they had a knob, and NO temp control.
Microwaving turns out to be pretty non-exact science. I want my left overs heated, I want my popcorn popped.
In order to do this in a "good" microwave, it could take a half a dozen to a dozen gestures setting the time to the second (A totally useless time measure when cooking) and the tempreture to a specific setting (which has no human meaning whatsoever).
In a cheap microwave, it only took a single gesture. Turn the knob to about the right amount of time, and it turns on, cooks for the right amount of time, and shuts itself off.
A few years ago not even cheap microwaves came with knobs. There are a couple of Restraunt grade ones that do (They appreciate the minimum number of steps in a restraunt), but they are hard to locate and very expensive. But I was resigned to my purchase.
I moved into a new home, and it had a built in microwave. A really nice Sharp, with a TON of buttons. With horror I began schemeing how to get rid of the beast.
But the story has a happy ending. I still do exactly the same things I do with the microwave, heat leftovers, and pop popcorn. And the sharp has two buttons that do precisely that. It has a heat leftovers button. And it has a pop popcorn button. 1 Gesture, and now I don't even have to know "how long". The amount of technology to pull this off, is magnitudes greater than my old microwave, but nonetheless, nearly unbelievably my new microwave is simpler to use than the one with just a knob.
The marketplace has come to solve a problem I didn't even really know I had. To make my microwaving life even easier. As with all technology that I buy and love, it is exactly that power of the marketplace that gets me what I want.
Cell phones... can't live with them x 2 (Score:3, Insightful)
What happens if somebody needs to get ahold of me? They call my house and leave a message. It's amazing how that works.
If they made a cell phone *just* for making calls, no extended contracts, a monthly fee of $15 for unlimited use and a phone that costs $50, I'd get a cell phone. Until then, I'll stick to my landline and the ubiquous pay phone.
gee whizz bang phones (Score:3, Interesting)
Posters: RTFM, please! (Score:3, Informative)
Article:
The data also showed that 25 percent of consumers thought they already owned a high-definition television -- the true number is less than half that.
Slashdot summary:
Also cited, 25% of people think they own an HDTV, when the actual number is less than 10%.
HDTV (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing to do with the new standard, but I can see why more people than expected say they have one.
Surely some of it is an interface problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, people have said this kind of things about lots of products, including amateur 35mm cameras. Strangely enough, some folks went to trouble of learning how to use them anyway. Those folks know how the complicated controls work.
That's when the industry changes the controls in the name of "ease of use", thus alienating not only the beginner, but also the person who knew what they were doing before.
One of the things that pisses me off about my digital camera is that I have to dig through menus to change settings like exposure, f-stop, flash on/off, etc. The camera supports them all in theory, but it is hard to use in practice. Let's see, click here, left, down down down, menu... whoops! Lost the shot.
There are cameras that have these controls now, but in my experience they are unjustifiably more expensive just for that design.
Stick to the metaphor, manufacturing guys. If it's a camera, it should be controlled like a camera, even if there's a computer on the inside. That means knobs and dials and stuff that is quick to get at, makes sense if you know what it does, and can be ignored if you don't. Just like the old days.
It is a question of letting the old dog use the new technology without having to learn the "new trick paradign" too. The functions are the same, why change the controls? What's next, point-and-click blenders?
On the other hand, the next generation of car drivers might need a gamepad instead of a steering wheel...
Worse than that...key features are neglected (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Worse than that...key features are neglected (Score:3, Insightful)
People Want... (Score:5, Insightful)
But you know what?
People BUY complexity. They could buy a Mac, but they buy the PC because it has 'more software'. They could buy a simple phone, but they buy the one with all the gee-wizz features. They could pay $10 for shareware, but they want Photoshop and Word.
On top of that, it's hard to make things simple. It costs more to make a product easy to use. (Especially with software, where cramming maximal items into the preferences panel seems to be an industry sport.)
People get what they pay for.
Manufacturers don't know the average Joe (Score:3, Interesting)
Modern high tech devices are getting more and more complex and difficult to understand from a conceptional point of view. The average consumer is hopelessly lost when it comes to understanding any of today's high end tech stuff.
The stuff is designed by incredibly smart people, but usually they don't know the average consumer's way of thinking, which is why dumb devices like iPods are so successful: They can be handled by the average joe.
KISS confused with features (Score:3, Interesting)
And some other people pointed out that people ask for features.
Yet at the same time we want things to be simple.
Well, I like lots and lots of features, but I want them to be simple. That's why I for instance Love Photoshop and won't use Gimp. Photoshop has more features though...
OK, I'm moving away from computer programs to avoid religious discussions...
My wife and I both have the cheapest, simplest phones around. They share the same feature set (games, diddly tunes, whatever), but mine has a Nokia-like interface, hers a weird one. Mine is simple, hers is complex.
Same features, same product, mine simple, hers complex. She uses hers every day, but still can do some things better on my phone, while they are quite different in approach.
It's not the amount of features, it's the DESIGN. That's what KISS means. There are more than enough one function devices around that are really really complex, bad or plain stupid (simple stupid: good. plain stupid: bad).
That's btw the difference between a good gui and a dumb-it-down pretty pictures approach.
No! No! No! Don't dumb down my devices! (Score:3, Interesting)
So some people can't figure out how to use the things they buy. Too bad. I say add more features. Many features require little in the way of additional hardware. Why not include them even if they're not used often? Granted, sometimes there are bad interfaces but a bad interface is better than NO interface!
It's sad. Look at what happened to digital watches. They're much more reliable than analog watches and they died only because people couldn't figure out how to set them to the correct time.
On a similar note, I'm beginning to hate PowerPoint. Why does everything have to be broken into bite size pieces? Give me high density information. I'm a big boy. I can read a white paper.
In short (Score:3, Insightful)
In short: get the customers' heads into the real world.
Re:Open Source HW (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nextel, just a phone, I like just a phone (Score:2)
Re:I respectfully disagree...with you. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:usability vs. time (Score:5, Insightful)
Gimmicks do NOT exist to meet market demand. They are added to CREATE market demand. Cell phones didn't add games because people demanded them; the manufacturers added games and then marketed them as an essential reason to throw away your old phone.
Companies used the gimmicks as a tool for the marketers to create an artificial market demand. Sooner or later, the gimmicks become so silly that even good marketing can't sell them. That's when the crap features disappear, and the market becomes more-or-less stable. That's also the death of a growth-based company, and so manufacturers will do ANYTHING to avoid the natural evolution down the back slope of the bell curve.
Re:Bjarne Stroustroup quote (Score:3, Funny)
Here I am at College, and I find a cellphone, all by itself, left in the bushes behind a little concrete edge often used as a bench. Looks like an expensive little bugger. I retrieve it. Maybe I could call its owner or maybe some of their friends and let their caller ID tell them whose calling, then maybe one of them can help me return it to its rightful owner. Guess what, I get the darned thing turned on, lots of buttons, each does something, but I will be darned
Re:KISS is good, but it prevents progress. (Score:3, Insightful)
Most designs go from simple to complicated to simple again.
A point in case is the computer interface. It has gone from command line to graphical interface, over time the gui has become so feature laden that in the end there was a demand for simplicity again.
Which BTW is far from the same as dumbing it down, a case in point being OS X which allows for extreme complexity but by doing Simple Stupid gestures.
Thus, I think we should follow K