Tag Archives: frustration

Sometime technology s(UX)

I used to have one remote for my TV, now I have 3. One of them is for my sound bar. When I turn the sound bar on, (on its own, it turns on automatically for the tv), in order to connect to my phone. Before I can click the input options, I need to wait 6 or 7 seconds while the sound bar scrolls ‘WELCOME’ across its small screen 3 or 4 times.

Just now I decided I want to have a song on repeat on my phone and it took me over a minute to figure out how to do this. Sure, I was given the choice to do many things with the song…

But the simple option to hit repeat was elusive on the main screen.

Yesterday I wanted to drag a song into GarageBand and it kept being added at 4 times the speed. I found out GarageBand needs the song to be a specific speed. I checked, same speed. Then I learned it had to be a specific format, so I had to duplicate the song in the new format. Now I’ve got two versions of the song in iTunes and need to delete one, but which one, they look identical in iTunes? 3 years ago this was a seamless activity that I never struggled with no matter what format I worked with.

Is it just me or is technology getting more confusing and less user-friendly. And no, my sound bar scrolling ‘WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME’ while being fully inoperative is NOT user friendly!

I want to use my credit card at a gas station, not only must I put in my pin, I need to say how much I want to spend as a maximum. Every instant teller I go to asks me what language I want to work in… how hard would it be for the machine to know my preference after asking once? And as for autocorrect… it’s getting worse, not better.

I love my tech, but it seems to me that technology is all about adding features, and not about user experience (UX). The user is forgotten as new bells and whistles are added. Or things are so locked down that I need Face ID, a confirmation text, and coming soon, a DNA scan. Between new features and new security measures, there seems little time spent thinking about what the experience is for the end user.

So for any tech designers out there, here is a little tip, we don’t need to be greeted by inanimate objects, and if we are, allow us to actually use the object while it’s welcoming us.

3 trips

On the weekend I spent some time putting water fed solar panels up on our roof. I thought 50 feet of flexible piping would be enough, but that only covered getting the water to and from the low garage roof, and not taking care of the piping also needed to get the water from the pool to the pump and filter.

Yesterday after work I bought more piping from a pool & hot tub store and then went to the hardware store to buy more connectors than I needed so that I wouldn’t have to make another trip.

Then I made another trip to the hardware store… and then another. I finally had all the proper connection pieces, but only after assembling 3 pieces together to replace one piece that was there previously. Without going into details, the small pump currently attached to the pool, which is too small to pump water up onto the garage roof, is attached by parts unique to the pump and so the transition from the pool to the new pump was not as simple as I thought it would be.

So, I continued my tradition of always having to go to the hardware store more than once whenever I do any kind of handy work. I’m glad it’s a short drive, but when I have to go a third time, it’s really frustrating. I ended up re-hooking up the old pump after dark, and will put everything together later this week, but probably not until the weekend, with a very busy after school schedule until then.

‘Measure twice cut once’ is a phrase you often here tradespeople say. Well, it seems mine should be ‘measure twice, visit the hardware store once’… but no matter how much I measure, how much I think I’ve prepared, I end up not realizing I needed another item, or buying the wrong item, or running into an unforeseen issue. Chalk up one each for those reasons last night.

The day I am able to visit a hardware store just once, and complete a full repair of project will be a day of celebration for me. But last night was not that night. Last night it took 3 trips to the hardware store. And now the task that I had hoped to be completed must wait longer to be done (again).