New lesson

Recently I learnt something new from a meeting at work. At least it is to me and proves that my brain still runs well though it shuts down most of the time. So, have you ever experienced that when you buy a technical product only to feel that it is not user-friendly? I have encountered such products so many times and it sucks.

My husband would say the reason I was feeling like that is because I have not got use to the product yet. Of course, I also believe that practice makes perfect but I do not think that it is always the cause for feeling such. By the way, Abi is a by-the-book person while I am a spontaneous kind of a person. He would normally study the instruction manual while I would well, spontaneously operate a technical product. You know how stressful it is to operate everything just by trial and error. This is why I always treasure user-friendly products.

Let me share with you the ugly truth about technical products especially the nonuser-friendly ones. Actually, nonuser-friendly products are an effect of cost down activities. Ever wonder why when many hand phone brands are flooding the market but their prices become cheaper and cheaper?

When competition gets tougher, manufacturers are pressured to cut down their production cost to win market share. With cost of materials increasing over time, how do they manage to sell cheaper? Well, cheapskate companies would buy low-priced materials they result in products with yucky appearance and sucky performance and they still sell as cheap. However, renowned companies are smarter; they would purchase the same or slightly low-priced materials and delete some of the features (and call it improvement) but they get to sell as expensive.

For example, I remember a hand phone feature that recorded your every call’s duration and time but now it just records time. Get it? They make you believe that they have improved the feature but the truth is they simply delete it.

The product usage learning cost is in fact born by the end consumers, you. Yes, you pay for a nonuser-friendly product and have no other choice but start practicing until you get use to it. See, practice does make perfect!

So if you find that a product is nonuser-friendly, then it is an effect of cost down activities by the company producing it. You just do not realize it until it is already too late. Do not blame yourself for not being a technology savvy person. A good technological product should adapt to and help ease your life, not make you adapt to it and stress your own life. Moreover, earning decent money to pay for the product is already time consuming, therefore mastering the product usage should not be.