Why is tech so user un-friendly?

This is a bit of a rant. Now, I am a geek. I am a gadget lover, I have loads of time and energy I am prepared to put towards the pursuits of gadgets and geekiness. However, even I have times where my patience is pushed to it's limits!! Today was one example...

when I woke up this morning I found a note on my computer screen from my wife. "Stupid mp3 player not working with Napster, please fix". Ok, So today is my rest day from work so i thought "no problem" I'll sort this out quick, then I can go for a walk in the sun with the dogs.

To cut a long story short, 3 hours later, 2 firmware upgrades to a "new" mp3 player that is not even listed on manufacturers website and is in fact a discontinued model!! plus a phonecall to Napster tech support (the only good thing about today, napster tech support get 5 stars from me), I finally get the player to work.

My rant? Why did I have to go through so many hoops just to get something to work? Why can't gadget manufacturers build stuff that is capable of up-grading itself automatically without prompts or error messages? Is it beyond the capability of engineers to make something that is actually user friendly?

My family are not tech enthusiasts like I am. They don't have the patience to wade through websites to find the solution to a problem. My wife was going to throw the player in the bin but thought she'd see if I could fix it first, I'm glad she did!

Why is something that is only 3 years old? (i checked) considered obsolete?

Surely it's high time tech was made more user friendly and accessible to the non-tech minded people out there.

I could rant on about the "desktop clean-up wizard" but I think that warrants a whole new post in itself!! My daughter has been on my pc and the clean-up wizard reared it's ugly head, she panicked, not knowing what it was, clicked on it and hey-presto!! I have had to re build my desktop!!

Tags: creative, friendly, gadgets, hardware, micro., mp3, obsolete, players, user, zen

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Comment by Justin on April 5, 2009 at 1:24am: I think this is a constant battle of questions. Where is the threshold at which stupidity ends and reasonable ignorance begins. I once had a customer question me as to what a power outlet was, not a feeble old woman but no older than 40. Technology makes life easier, it is the point of it's mere existance. If your not willing to learn how to utilize it than perhaps you don't disserve to bask in it's glory. An almost pure example is when a
customer asks where to get more ram while unraveling the DIMM in his sweaty palm, this person is obviously not confident enough to know better but is willing to undertake a project that could easily go wrongnevery time from esd damage. Google is our friend people.

Comment by Andy on April 4, 2009 at 8:35am: Ta for the advice on the desktop clean up wizard. Exactly what purpose does the clean up wizard serve anyway other than to annoy power users?

I've always deliberately stayed a generation or two behind in terms of gadgets, you get the best bargains that way!! however it would be nice for older tech to be supported for longer in some way by manufacturers. Certain large o/s vendors are notorious for doing that and panicking you into upgrading to the latest version lest you fall foul of viruses and other nasties lurking on the interwebby thing!!

as for proprietary adapters...I have a drawer full of them!!

Comment by Sak Sun on April 3, 2009 at 2:33pm: Laptops... specifically the power adapters. I have a Toshiba Equium M50-216 a stupidly rare model only sold in the UK and only sold for like... a couple of weeks or something stupid like that. At the time I bought it, I didn't know this. So after about 6 months, the adapter wore out, the inside of the wire broke near where it plugs into the laptop. I'd been paying for insurance, but of course they never cover anything that can actually go wrong with a laptop, so no luck getting a replacement there. I then go and get what they told me was a "universal" adapter, which had several different tips that supposedly fit most laptop types, it fit, kinda, but not the snug fit it needed, and after a few months the wear and tear got too much for it. Another two "universal" adapters and i had really had enough, not only were they breaking because they didn't fit properly, but the stress was making the hole in my laptop loose too. The only way i could get the actual adapter meant for my laptop was this one source on the internet, and i had to buy a new battery to match.

FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!

I understand they want to be able to sell their own replacements, but when they won't sell them it makes it difficult. They should standardise within their own stock at least.

Comment by yourfindit on April 3, 2009 at 1:53pm: i've had so many of these problems. the rate at which technology is being considered "obsolete" is outrageous.

Comment by David on April 3, 2009 at 1:27pm: Tech stuff either needs to become as completely transparent as possible to the end user or we need to go back to the dark ages of CPM, DOS, etc., and weed out all the users who need to live in Assisted Computing Facilities in order to have someone push the lil buttons on their toaster/microwave/Sponge Bob mp3 player for them.

Of course, for the rest of us, it would be nice to have accurate manuals every now and then, written by someone with English as a primary language (Oops. Have to find people who aren't recent graduates of American colleges for that)...

Comment by SChalice on April 3, 2009 at 11:33am: Disable the Automatic Desktop Cleanup Feature:

To stop the wizard from automatically running every 60 days:

Right-click a blank spot on the desktop, and then click Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box.
Click the Desktop tab.
Click Customize desktop to open the Desktop Items dialog box.
Click to clear the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days check box.
Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes.

Comment by Andy on April 3, 2009 at 5:41am: Thanks for all your comments. All very valid. as a tech geek who loves to "get under the hood" I can tolerate, in fact often enjoy, the failings in programmers ui research, it's what makes being a geek a fascinating hobby. However it can't be beyond the wit of companies to test these products on non-tech loving people, after all they are the ones who will ultimately use their product.

One of the main resistances I get from people I know who don't use a computer is that they are complicated and they may break them. A computer that can be switched on and be rady to work instantly, that, after initial set up has all the programs the user regularly uses ready and open on the desktop. A computer that updates totally automatically even to the exptent that the user doesn't even know it is doing it. Is that not possible nowadays?
Oh, and don't even get me started on proprietary usb sockets!!! (mp3, and digital camera makers? there should just be a large usb socket and a small one, not a different size for every device I own!!)

Comment by cliffystones on April 2, 2009 at 4:29pm: One more thing to add. The folks who make medical equipment (my specialty) also pull the same nonsense. Like $900 trackballs (Yes Virginia!) Another little reason health care costs are through the roof.

Comment by cliffystones on April 2, 2009 at 4:24pm: Remember, these are the same folks who can't agree on a standard for the plugs and sockets used on the battery chargers for these devices!

There is definitely a complete lack of standardization. Some of it is due to competition, but some of it is also to keep things "proprietary" (read outrageously expensive!)

Premium models don't necessarily make things better either. I've personally had relatives complain of major league problems with Sony Vaio Laptops and iPods. You can throw money away on expensive tech as well as cheapie tech.

Comment by Kimrn on April 2, 2009 at 3:58pm: There is a very simple explenation. Ease of use and good service is not free. Many manufacturers save money in those areas to make their products cheaper. The real problem is that most customers don't get that. They buy the cheapest thing. I am not saying that it's wrong to complain about bad service. But it is wrong to think that you get more than you pay for. (I suspect that the mp3 player you were talking about not was one of the premium models. If I am wrong about that, I'm sorry. You're totally right.)
Btw sorry for any typos in this comment, I'm posting from my iPod touch.