Fighting the tech maze

Many more of you have heard the term 'usability' and 'easy to use' by now and many more are using it liberally, especially in marketing your wares. This has happened because 'easy to use' matters today as technology penetrates our lives. But how do you lay a claim on 'user-friendly'? Have you measured it? Have your users measured it and told you? Would many of them in significant numbers agree if you asked them to rate it?

I had the following actual exchange when trying to repeatedly unsubscribe to an unsolicited online newsletter:

Me: I don't know who you are or how you got hold of my ID, but unsubscribe me from your list immediately!

How dare you be mailing me and have a convoluted unsubscribe procedure that I have already gone through twice in the past and yet keep getting mails from you. Have you never heard of a simple unsubscribe button and respect for not encroaching on people's privacy?

They: We will remove. Sorry for any inconvenience. The 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom does, however, work. You would need to click on the 'Forgot Password' link to get a system-generated password. The process is easy and quick.

Me: I have already tried your 'easy and quick' process twice.

How in the world is 'Forgot Password + Get System Generated Password + Open Mail + Login again + Enter Password + ... = 'Unsubscribe'?

Either I must be dumb (I only hold two Masters degrees) or you must be a 'technology expert'. Please do not justify your convoluted process and moreover, it would be best to leave labeling something as 'easy and quick' to the end user.

Did the exchange stop here? Yes, but not the newsletters. I finally went in yet again after the newsletter had arrived two more times and eureka! I managed to act intelligently enough to follow the 'easy and quick' process and the irritating newsletter stopped cluttering my mailbox forever after that.

So we have yet another instance of technology managing to cower down a consumer into submission, instead of the other way around.

Did you say other way around? Isn't technology the king? No, not anymore. Then who gets to decide whether something is easy to use or not? The designer, the manufacturer or the user? Today, the consumer is the king. Keep in mind that alluring claims in product advertisements, websites or enrollment invitations prefaced with 'our easy to use product' or 'simple 5 step process' or 'effortless system' does not actually make them easy to use. You the end-user gets to decide, and vote with your 'purchasing decisions' whether you agree or not.

No offence to the technologists out there. But typically technologists are not commonly oriented to working on how to make life simpler for the average person. It requires different skills and expertise to do this. Technologists typically focus on how to make a design work. How easy the design is to use is not necessarily their focus, or, even if it is, their perception of easy to use may be very different from the average end-user of that design. These are two very different and both critical focuses.

Unfortunately complexities of technology have engulfed our waking hours. Like when you could not figure out how to turn off the 'everyday' selection on your mobile alarm and jumped up in bed, palpitating and sweating at 5 am on a Sunday morning, cursing. But who do you curse?

So, consumers do not be afraid or feel inferior by product claims that proudly declare something as 'easy to use', while you are struggling with it. It is not you who is stupid, it is they who forgot about you, forgot to include you when they were designing. But you, the end-consumer gets to decide.

So what can you do? First, when you buy or subscribe to something, you can ask how long it will take to setup the simple 5-step enrollment. You decide whether that is too long or not and refuse to sign up for it. You can also ask to speak with previous users and can even do that online. It can actually save you time later. Remember once you own the product, the complexities are yours and yours alone. And complexity today is non trivial and growing rapidly.

Basically, people use a product or access a website to do something. It must help them get that done. This becomes critical particularly with websites, now that many of us interact with them on a daily basis.

So secondly, always remember that you have a reason for visiting a site or working with a product. If you struggle, feel lost, confused or frustrated, it is time to get out. Go to sites or products instead that care about you as a consumer and support rather than create barriers for you. If you are in leisure mode, networking socially or generally wandering doing online research for example, you are in a different mindset. However that leisure activity must be pleasurable rather than stressful. And you decide which of these it is.

Thirdly, consider that your time is valuable and consciously develop preconceived notions about its value. Time is after all the most precious commodity in today's urban life. Therefore, to purchase an air ticket, do you consider 5 minutes, 15 minutes or

55 minutes reasonable? To sell your camera online, are you willing to invest one, two or half an hour? And to unsubscribe to an unsolicited newsletter, are you willing to exchange 2, 3 or 5 emails. And what happens if you do not have a choice, like the loop I landed in with the newsletter? Well, maybe the technologists out there are listening to me and to you and such 'easy and quick' processes will actually start living up to their claim. Remember, finally you are the judge and you get to decide.

The writer is consultant, User in Design and Persistent Systems