New stuff is frustrating. Why do I say new stuff is frustrating? Here's why ...
New products and services today are too complicated and difficult to use. It seems like companies and organizations today don't bother to check with consumers BEFORE they roll out a new product or service or upgrade. If they did, they would never put out the stupid stuff they put out. Instead of testing new stuff with actual normal users BEFORE they launch it, they just launch it. And frustrate the consumer.
Here are some recent examples:
My Chrysler 200 car automatically turns on the radio when you start the vehicle. There is no way to un-program that (I looked it up, there is NO way). I don't want the radio to automatically come on when I start the car. The radio automatically turns on and I have to take extra steps, I have to push buttons and turn knobs, to then turn it off. This happens EVERY time I start the vehicle. I, and many other drivers, do NOT want the radio to automatically turn on when the car is started. It is annoying. Why didn't Chrysler ask consumers if they wanted the radio to turn on automatically when the car was started BEFORE they designed it to do that? Or at least give consumers a simple way to disable that??? They didn't feel the need to do so?
Electronic devices especially are getting more and more complicated. They seem to be designed for technical professionals, or technically talented amateurs, NOT regular non technical users. Why does my TV remote have 46 buttons, most of which we consumers will never use? And why did Microsoft force me to upgrade to a new operating system, a new operating system that doesn't do many of the things I, the user, want it to do or that is so complicated that I, the user, can't figure out how to use my computer?
Computers, tablets and cell phones are so complicated (and un-intuitive) that only 11-year-old geeks can figure out how to use them. And 11-year-olds do NOT buy expensive electronic devices!
Why don't makers of products and services hold focus/testing groups of NORMAL adult non technical users before they launch products so complicated that normal adults have to take a course in order to use them? And forget reading the instruction manual (if they even give you one)! They are written in incomprehensible gobbeldygook, or are so complicated they might as well be.
So many products and services. New, improved, upgraded products and services flood the market. And we, the consumer, are being ignored at the design stage. When you buy it, stuff is not easy to operate, often doesn't work well, may be defective, or requires a tutor to show you how to use it. It's designed by insider professionals who don't ask what we like or don't like about a product or service before they shove it down our throats. Who do they think is buying and using their products and services? Consumers. We, the consumer, are paying for new goods and services that all too often may NOT be improvements, they are just more complicated to use. And nobody is bothering to ask for our input BEFORE these new products and services are launched.
It's a new "take it or leave it" consumer economy. "Here's our product, deal with it". Take it or leave it. And, based on many of my recent consumer experiences, if they don't start checking with "normal" adult consumers before they launch a new or improved product, and start making stuff that makes sense and is easy to use, I'm gonna start choosing to "leave" it.
