HCI Forum topic DISS 720

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/designing-whats-right-for-consumers/

February 7, 2008, 11:19 am
Designing What’s Right for Consumers

You might think that digital picture frames would not be especially hard to review. After all, what’s so difficult? You plug it in, you turn it on. (And that’s if it has an on/off switch at all, which most of them don’t.)

But creating my roundup in The Times today was brutal, truly brutal. For one thing, there were seven frames to test. Second, there were a million features to test on each one (pictures from memory card, pictures from U.S.B. flash drive, pictures from the PC, pictures by e-mail, pictures from the Web, text messages from the Web, videos, MP3 file playback, and so on). And third, nothing is more nightmarish to set up than wireless home networking equipment, and that’s just what most of these frames were.

One of the frames, the eStarling, is now in a second version. The first, which debuted last year, was so unreliable that the company sent every single customer a free 2.0 frame when it came out. As I was researching this frame, I came across an interview online with the eStarling’s chastened head honcho, Andrew Caffey.

“We learned deeply a few hard lessons,” he said. “Consumer electronics is a very difficult business. It’s difficult to get it right.”

I can’t get that quote out of my head. I’ve never heard anything so absurd. It is not hard to get technology right!

Maybe this particular guy is rightness challenged. Or maybe he meant that getting things right takes time, money and effort, which is true.

But it sounds like he’s saying that it’s hard to know what’s right in product design, and he’ll never convince me of that. A ten-year old could have identified the design flaws in the frames I tested this week.

And so, I’ll bet, can you. Using this one small example — digital picture frames — let’s see how you do playing Designing What’s Right.

Question 1: Which is right: to build in a power switch (as on the frames from Kodak and iMate), so you can turn the frame off at night? Or to omit the power switch, so that your customers have to crawl on the floor to unplug the whole thing (as on the eStarling and others)?

Question 2: Which is the right design for a Wi-Fi frame: to display the names of available wireless networks on the screen (Kodak and iMate Momento)? Or to require you to connect the frame to a computer with a U.S.B. cord, download a piece of network-sniffing software from a Web site, and use that to display the names of available networks (like the eStarling)?

Question 3: Which is right on a Bluetooth frame: to include instructions for pairing your phone right in the instruction booklet (Parrot)? Or to omit it from the user guide, and instead print it on a separate photocopied sheet in the box, like an afterthought, explaining that feature (eMotion)?

Question 4: Which is right: To integrate Bluetooth right into the frame (Parrot, eMotion), or to require an external Bluetooth dongle that hangs off the frame (PanDigital)?

Question 5: Which is right: To print your tech-support phone number right in the user manual (Parrot)? Or to offer no phone support at all (Momento)?

Question 6: Which is the right font size for the user guide: 10-point (Kodak) or 7-point (Parrot)?

Question 7: Which is right way to design the frame’s leg (which holds it up on the desk): so that it folds away into the back when not required (Kodak)? Or as a separate plastic piece that has to be hand-snapped onto the back — and, when the frame is hung, has to be stored and tracked (most others)?

Question 8: Which is right: To build a little pocket for the remote control in the back of the frame, so you won’t lose it (Kodak, Momento)? Or not to bother, forcing you to leave it on the desk amid the clutter for the rest of the frame’s life (the others)?

Question 9: Which is the right operating-system compatibility for a Wi-Fi frame that can access the pictures on your computer: Windows only (Kodak, Momento)? Or both Mac and Windows (none)?

Question 10: Which is the right way to label the jacks and buttons: White lettering on black (or vice versa), white on white (Momento), or with no text labels at all (eStarling)?

I’m pretty sure you scored 10 out of 10 on this little exercise. So I think we’ve established that it’s easy to know what’s right.

The only question, then, is why manufacturers don’t actually bother doing what’s right. I’m sure they have all kinds of excuses for compromise: “That would cost money,” “That would set us back a month,” “That would limit sales in Eastern Europe,” whatever.

But you don’t have to have an M.B.A. to understand that refusing to compromise on design, for any reason, can lead to fantastic commercial success. Look at Apple, Google, Sonos, R.I.M. (makers of the BlackBerry), or (in its glory days) Palm.

So what goes through the minds of executives who don’t sweat the small stuff? Don’t they realize that critics and bloggers will find and publicize the limitations? Don’t they realize that customers nowadays can compare notes, can warn each other away? And in a crowded field like digital frames, why on earth can’t they see that the only way to differentiate is to be better than the other guys?