Gadgets Need To Be Easier

The average amount of time a consumer spends trying to set up a device before giving up. More than half of the electronics devices returned to stores last year were in perfect working order.

This entry in AdAge reminded me of something my mother showed me a few months back - simple gadget guides put together in plain English by Marks and Spencer's. They went down this route following their own research showing 60% of Britons do not enjoy shopping for electronic products due to the lack of helpful, or overly pushy, in-store staff, confusing instruction manuals or baffling amounts of functions and services.

M&S also found that one in five people who own electronic items do not know what common technology terms like PDA, MP3, or HDTV mean. Gasp....really?

46% of people who own at least one electronic device cannot operate their gadget above the basic level and rely on friends and family to operate them. Check...I can vouch for that one. Not my own family of course :)

So, to counter this Marks & Spencer repackaged all of its technology products to make them more appealing and, in many cases, re-written the instruction manuals to make them more user-friendly. Apart from the iPod one which I believe they weren't allowed to rewrite. Having said that, this is something Apple excels at: OOBE or Out of Box Experience.

Everyone else, us included should get a "must do better" comment on their school report card.

Technorati Tags: gadgets , m&s

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 02, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 02, 2007
  Sometimes it is not just the setup on the computer, but the device itself that makes it difficult. Recently, I bought a new Canon digital camera and for the life of me, I could not figure out where to put the batteries in. The manual had some diagrams, but it didn't seem to work. After a couple of hours of being obstinate about it, I finally gave up. Imagine my embarrassment when my wife popped up the battery compartment within a few seconds. Apparently you had to first slide and then push it. Oh well, I suppose some people are good with gadgets and some aren't.

• Anonymous
  August 05, 2007
  took you a long time to blog about "the little old lady," remember on the way back from the Chelsea Flower Show. This is what non tech people like me and thousands of others want, M&S now thats what I call looking after your customer!!!