So the support centre / general-purpose technology anecdote goes. Bit-tech reported yesterday that around half of all the electrical goods that the great unwashed populace return to shops are, in fact, not in the slightest bit faulty; people, it turns out, just can’t work out how to use their gizmos, and after about 20 minutes, if the device doesn’t do what they want, it’s assumed to be broken, and back the store said user trots, perfect working order device in hand, for a refund.
I’m a little surprised that people battle on for as long as 20 minutes, and frankly, if most people, or even a decent percentage of people (I’d say 50% is well above ‘decent’ in this context) can’t work a device out in 20 minutes, then if we’re talking about mainstream electronics for a mass-market, then actually the device is faulty. It might be working as designed, or at least it would if the user could ever get it into some state approximating to working, but if you’ve bought, say, a new mobile phone, or a DVD player, or a fantastic new labour saving kitchen device and it doesn’t work right out of the box, or with minimal tinkering once you’ve plugged it in, then surely the design could have done with more work. If your target audience is, ooh, I don’t know, let’s call them ‘people’, and ‘people’, it turns out, can’t operate your gadget, your gadget is probably cr*p, and you deserve to have a warehouse-full returned quick-sharp.
Follow the link to read the rest of the (brief) article, and some variedly informed responses in their forum:
50% of ‘faulty’ products baffle users
But be warned, the article contains scenes of a very cute nature.
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