Lance really isn't an idiot. Nor is he the only one employed by this premier technological research university who struggles with poorly designed products.
Just this past weekend, when my cell phone/PDA informed me that an update was available for some software held deep within its tiny bowels, I innocently clicked OK. After all, software upgrades are good, right? (Yeah, I'm one of those guys at the airport who likes to tap the stylus on the screen of my cell toy to give the illusion of busyness and ever-important connectivity; usually, though, I'm playing chess against the microchip, and losing.)
I now have the latest upgrade, but I can't figure out the new, improved interface for email.
So, I may know how to program the clock in my car (FYI, Lance, I just use a ball-point pin to push in the tiny button until the right hour shows up), but I don't know why I should have to. I mean, my computer knows when Daylight Savings Time starts and ends. Why can't my car? They're both about the same age.
Which brings us, again, to today's holiday, World Usability Day, and a blog post at Fast Company Now a few months back about how half of the consumer-electronics products returned to stores function properly, but customers simply can't figure out how to operate them.
I'm glad UMR students and faculty are involved in World Usability Day activities today. I'm also glad that UMR faculty like Venkat Allada are working to improve products so they'll have less impact on the environment. That's all in the name of good usability, too.
If you do nothing else about usability today, the least you can do is to observe a minute of silence (at noon EST) "as a means of sending out the hope that there be a greater respect for all users and their ability to make the world a better place, through the time won by greater usability."
Maybe during that minute of silence, you could also heed designverb's suggestion and "think about everything that you use, touch, see, or hear and ask, how can I make it better? Is something broken, confusing, too complex, or just not working?" I know of at least one other guy who thinks about that stuff.
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