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Frustration by Design

May 13, 2013
by Caroline Miller
" Dinah Eng, "Creative Potential Within Us All", 'Bringing Design to Corporate America", David Kelley
4 Comments

Last week, (5/9), I wrote that a squirrel had chewed through a power line outside my home, creating a huge electrical surge. I don’t know what became of the squirrel but it fried much of my electronic equipment. As I complained then, reading the manuals that came with the replacements required not only a degree in engineering but the ability to read minds. A week later, I was still struggling with an inscrutable manual for the landline telephone.

 Since I like to keep life simple, I don’t use many features that come with the machine. All I wanted to do was program the date and time so I’d know when friends had called. The instructions seemed straightforward. I punched in the correct numerals, then looked for the “save” button. I couldn’t find it anywhere, not on the phone nor in the manual’s diagrams. I dialed the long distance “help” number provided and listened to a canned message. None of the options applied. I hung up and dialed the two remaining numbers listed. Both took me to the same message.

 Frustrated, I screamed into the phone’s speaker: “I want to talk to a human.” To my surprise, a voice answered. It told me the “save” button and the “off” button are one in the same. The voice went on to inform me that if I’d read the “caller ID” section of the manual, I’d have discovered that fact.

 But I don’t have caller ID, I said to myself, so why would I look there? I didn’t argue. I was happy to have my question answered and hung up.

 My point is that manuals are often written without regard to how they are used. A robot might happily scan all the contents of a manual from beginning to end, but most humans won’t. Humans will look for what’s relevant.

David Kelley, a major designer for Apple, agrees with me. His first commandment to his students at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford is, “That the most important thing in business is to be human centered. (“Bringing Design to Corporate America, by Dinah Eng, Fortune, April 29, 2013, pg 28.) He’s written a book on the subject, Creative Potential Within Us All which will be published this October. It’s one manual every manual writer should read…from beginning to end.

woman shouting into telephone

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of www.thisismoney.co.uk)

 

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4 Comments
  1. MaryBeth Kelly May 13, 2013 at 1:05 pm Reply
    What a satisfying scream that could have been--until they told you where you should have found the answer, in an impossible location. Long live David Kelley.
    • Caroline Miller May 13, 2013 at 1:26 pm Reply
      Worse, after following the instructions of "the voice" to the letter, I get my first recorded call today and the date and time are wrong. Sigh!
  2. Marty DeVall May 22, 2013 at 9:21 am Reply
    I am entering a comment to test the path or email reporting a new comment, but I will comment. User manuals can be difficult to write to cover all types of situations that arise for non technical users when installing new electronic equipment. At the prices we pay today for such consumer equipment, very inexpensive, how can companies make it and still provide that hands on support. I remember my early days when we sold a PC like device for $15,000.00, now I can buy something similar for $100.00 bucks. Not as many were sold back then but support included someone coming to you to make sure it was all setup and working. I guess today we get what we pay for.
    • Caroline Miller May 22, 2013 at 4:01 pm Reply
      Your points are well taken, Marty. I confess, I forgot the manuals are meant to serve for more than one model and one product. Unfortunately, however, they become useless if overbroad.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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