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Or the thermostat just died. One of the two in our CA house did that recently. They're about 25 years old, nearly as old as you. Nothing lasts forever.
She probably just needs practice using the new one. I sometimes have trouble with hotel thermostats. Some interfaces are intuitive and others...just aren't.
I have an ex-wife. One time I replaced the thermostat with a programmable Honeywell. Showed her the UP arrow and DOWN arrow buttons and told her she can adjust the temperature up and down and it will reset to the programming on the next schedule. I told her to NOT touch the HOLD button because it locks the setting and bypasses the programming.... Yup.... she would adjust the temperature and press the HOLD button every time.....
Sorry if someone already said it, but I can’t get packages open. Is it that I’m weak, or are they just made out of stronger stuff?
I take a pill, once a month. It comes in a cardboard cover that I can barely rip open, then inside that is a card with a foil pack which takes scissors to penetrate. Why?
I hate when I buy a pair of scissors then need scissors to open the package
Siri and Alexa listen to your private conversations and report their findings to HQ. They also make strange noises in the middle of the night. I wouldn't be at all surprised is Siri is responsible for the missing chocolate chip cookies I had stashed in a good hiding spot.
Capt Kirk (in his best Shakespearean voice) -- "Computer"
(Disembodied Voice) - "Yes Captain ?"
Kirk -- "Make the Mouse Pointer on FiveLoaves' PC bigger."
i don't need no stinkin' friendly designs. I can make anything work. The user is far more important, than the utensil. If people can't make things work when they're older, they probably never could.
There is no need for the user to have to "work" to make things work. Companies "cheap out" when they fail to have users try out products all along the design process, from start to finish. That's been established for decades by the author cited in the original post.
1. Pull tab cans that won't open and/or break off
2. Other hard/impossible to open things
3. Computers in all household appliances that can break down- like my ex Samsung refrigerator's motherboard
4. Too small cell phones with non intuitive/ hard to use interfaces
5. Cars which have far too many bells & whistles
6. Turbotax requiring the latest Mac upgrade to work $#@!^&&
My mother, in a wheelchair for 35 of her 59 years always complained there wasnt a comfortable one made.
Towards the later years of her life my father bit the bullet and bought a$6k fitted for her and her needs wheelchair. Mother didn't want to spend that as she said " i could buy a car for that!" ( 1990s).
And NO, insurance from a fortune top 10. Company would not cover it.
Gene Roddenberry envisioned a computer on Star Trek that responded to voice commands.....that was 50 years ago. Are we there yet ??
Well, there's Siri and Alexa, but they can be pretty creepy sometimes. I'd never have either in my house.
But there is a program that is speak to type. Problem is, it doesn't recognize accents. We had a woman with a deep southern accent in our typing class and she had to give up her program. It just couldn't understand her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
Things like medicine often come in more “secure” packaging, which is a complete nuisance to open.
That's because of the idiot who tampered with the Tylenol bottles so long ago. If I ever get hold of him, I'm going to prison because I'm going to wring his scrawny little neck.
Alexa is one thing that I own that is user friendly and intuitive. I know some people don't like being spied on. I don't care though. I can tell that thing to time the meatloaf for an hour and she complies. I can tell her to get a different radio station and she does. I can tell her to turn the radio off in the middle of the night if I wake up. And she does. No need to fiddle with buttons or dials or complicated anything. Just order her around.
NOTHING on my car is intuitive. This is an older car too, but not old enough. There is so much extra stuff and so far I can barely turn the windshield wipers on. Will be practicing the lights once I get the wipers figured out. (Probably never get the rear windows and I know I will never find the gas cap lock thingy. )
As far as design goes, businesses design websites, products, etc (hopefully) with a set demographic in mind. If you so happen to be outside of the demographic then you fall into these issues of text being too small, hard to read color, or what have you.
Apple's demographic is quite large, but they definitely aren't catering to retirees. They have accessibility options for old fogies that use their products though. My company's demographics are probably late 20 somethings to 50s. Our data shows many of our customers still purchase/browse on their computers, therefore we aren't exactly 'mobile first.' We do design for mobile, but it's taken care of after all desktop considerations. We aren't going to make huge call-to-action buttons when the older demographic who needs them are just 10% of our customers. You can't please everyone, but if you're a decent designer you can find a happy medium.
But some people are just terrible designers. Any 'designer' who puts white text on a light background or commits other design sins should really know better.
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