Product design as communication

Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices… Product complaints and returns are often caused by poor design, but companies frequently dismiss them as "nuisance calls", Elke den Ouden found in her thesis at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands.

A wave of versatile electronics gadgets has flooded the market in recent years, ranging from MP3 players and home cinema sets to media centers and wireless audio systems, but consumers still find it hard to install and use them, she found.
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You know you’re in Geeksville when the manual is bigger than the product.

One of the ideals of product design is to replace the manual with the product. Everybody knows the secret of the instruction manual: If you want to keep a secret, put it in the instruction manual.

So why do companies continue to design products that require extensive instructions? A triumph of hope over experience.

What brain modules do you call on to process part of an instruction manual? I call on my the modules that make up my verbal system (the Vulcan). I read a paragraph and realize that I have no idea what it told me to do. That is just what I expected. My verbal system doesn’t do things. It talks about things.

If I want to do something with a product, I will need to activate the systems I use to control my hands. And the systems that I use to interpret what I see. You give me a manual that ties up my visual system with reading and uses my hands for holding a manual. And when that doesn’t help me to use your product, you think there is something wrong with me.

The problem is that instruction manuals are written by verbal systems. For verbal systems. Based on evaluations by verbal systems. And verbal systems often fail to realize that there is a whole world out there that is not verbal. It is real. Solid. To be used if you know the differences between talking and doing. (See: Keeping the Talk Modules Quiet.)

Why is the problem so hard to fix? Because the complaints are created by verbal systems and interpreted by verbal systems. It is a lot like complaining about the color of an outfit to someone who is color-blind.

What are the resources for solutions? Posters, comic books, audios (talk through), videos, videos in pantomime, videos in charades. Some of these are used. But not as often as necessary, to judge by the research at the top of this page.

Entrepreneurial alert. Maybe market. Some people will complain about instructions that come with the products they buy. A few will figure out how those instructions could be done better. A few will actually do the instructions better and put them on a website. Maybe a few will make money at that. But not the ones who only complain.

What does this have to do with homework? Some people will complain about homework. A few will see homework as another kind of product. Another kind of communication.