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In search of simplicity

Unraveling technology

Manufacturers worry that if a product is complicated, consumers won't buy it.

By DAVE GUSSOW
Published April 11, 2005

	[Times art: Don Morris]

Philips Consumer Electronics recently added another layer of product testing to its electronics line. Call it the boss test.

Before a product is shipped, it will be used by senior management at the Netherlands-based firm that makes everything from plasma televisions to toasters. If top brass can't figure out how to use it, the product doesn't make it to store shelves.

The edict came at a staff meeting in Atlanta from Reinier Jens, the company's president for North American operations. And it re-emphasized a simplicity theme the company has been touting since the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

"Technology should be as easy to operate as the box it comes in," said Tony Sciarrotta, director of product satisfaction at Philips. "It's a wonderful tag line, but I would not say we're there yet."

As much as consumers struggle with technology's complexities, the companies that design, engineer and sell today's gadgets grapple with ways to make things easier to use. And don't doubt their resolve - they have begun to fear that when products are too complicated to use, people are more reluctant to buy them.

According to the Philips Index, a survey on consumer attitudes conducted by the company, half the respondents said the electronics industry introduces whatever it thinks will sell, while 16 percent said the industry researched and understood consumer needs.

More troubling to the industry is the finding that about two-thirds of those surveyed "lost interest in a technology product because it seemed "too complex to set up or operate."' Thirteen percent declared tech products easy to use.

Everyone has an opinion on why technology is complicated, from the way products are developed to the way they're packed with every available feature. But few see an answer to the riddle of making things easier to use.

"As I often hear people say," said Tom Laemmel, Microsoft product manager for Windows client, "it's hard to make things simple."

Paul Sorenson calls himself a "human factors guy," and he can tick off several reasons technology is complex.

For one, engineers live and breathe their tech projects and assume everyone can easily understand what they're doing and the language they're speaking, says Sorenson, who works at Intel and is co-leader of the Ease of Use/PC Quality Roundtable, an industry consortium devoted to making tech products easier.

For another, companies, particularly in consumer electronics, work hard and spend a lot of money developing proprietary technology that doesn't play well with the proprietary technology of other brands. Suddenly, mating your top-of-the-line Panasonic TV with your top-of-the-line Sony DVD player may become an unrelenting ordeal.

Then, of course, there's the human factor. People learn new things based on previous experience. But when innovation is driving product development, there is no experience to help with the learning, and that leads to confusion.

"Every technology evolves faster than the ability of the market to absorb it and understand it," Sorenson said. "It's the fundamental engine that keeps growth and the business model thriving. No industry is going to pull back on innovation."

The roundtable started in 1998, when the computer industry worried about surveys that showed people were reluctant to buy PCs because they feared the machines' complexity.

Among the group's achievements: color-coded wires that made it easier to figure out where to plug in such things as the mouse and keyboard, as well as the quick-start illustrated guides to show how to set up computers.

"The roundtable had to tread carefully," Sorenson said. "We couldn't invent actual solutions. Individual companies had to innovate and make money."

Once some of the PC issues were resolved, the group saw that consumer electronics and computing were converging.

"We began recognizing that this is a never-ending role," Sorenson said.

The nature of technology is that products go to market, many with flaws, on the hopes of grabbing some early attention. Ease of use is often a secondary consideration. New products are aimed at a target group known in the industry as the "early adopters," people who prize the latest innovations, are generally tech savvy and have time to tinker.

"You've got to come up with new stuff because people are inventing all the time," Sorenson said. "Innovation and invention is the engine that drives the technology industry."

So who succeeds at ease of use? Ask the experts, and there's almost always a pause. It's not a long list.

The photo industry gets high marks for rapid response to consumer complaints as people switched from film to digital. Prices are down, features are up, performance is better.

One reason cited is that old matter of people and how they learn. The digital photo industry had to move quickly because people were familiar and comfortable with film. Using digital had to be as simple and as good.

Another category mentioned was printers, where connecting one to a computer doesn't require much effort. But then the conversations get back to complexities, including the venerable TV.

"It used to be a TV was a TV, with some quality and performance differences," said Philips' Sciarrotta, who also represents his company on the roundtable. "But right now we've gone the way of the computer world. Different screen formats, high-definition digital sets that's 4:3, but they want 16:9 (screen display). Do people really understand that? I don't think so."

Part of the problem is simply the number of gadgets coming out. One company at the Consumer Electronics Show introduced 35 new digital TV models for this year, with different technology, shapes and features.

"The real issue we're talking about is feature creep," said Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Techworld research company. "The basic part is usable, but there are so many features that people get lost beyond making a phone call on their cell phone, or printing a page on a multifunction (printer), taking a picture on the camera."

Meet Abby, Nicholas, David and Toby. They help determine what Microsoft puts in its products. But they're not real people.

They're demographic composites that represent different technology users: Abby is the reluctant adopter; Nicholas is the early and eager adopter; David wants to be like Nicholas, but doesn't have the money; and Toby is the college student.

"When you start doing the real usability stuff, we need to do a focus group to see if the new features make sense," Microsoft's Laemmel said.

Ideally, that focus group will have people who are just like Abby and the others, and they will be asked their opinions, maybe even try out prototypes, to help the software giant determine "not whether features will sell, but will they use and like them?"

Despite all the effort by companies, product problems frequently show up after release. Why? In many cases, Microsoft and other companies say, people use things in ways the electronics industry never envisioned, finding hidden features and discovering other tricks.

In addition, Microsoft says complexity gets built in because the PC is used for so many uses and interacts with so many gadgets. Ease of use remains an ongoing goal.

"I don't know anyone in a real position on the development team that says we've done it," Laemmel said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

Competition can clutter electronics.

"You sell your products on features," said Robert Wegner, group manager of Panasonic's accessibility group. "You say, "Okay, our competition has this feature, we need it, too.' Every time you say "we need it too,' there's another button."

Younger designers see nothing wrong with dozens of buttons on a remote control, Wegner said. And then the products often get tested in Japan, where the audience is more technically savvy and people can deal with small buttons.

Yet products are emerging that simplify things. Panasonic says making gadgets accessible for the impaired will help make things easier to use for everyone.

For example, Wegner says, if a blind person can use a phone by touch, then it will be easier for a sighted person, too. One model "talks," repeating the numbers that are dialed. New microwave ovens have fewer buttons, some are imprinted with Braille, and soon there will be a talking model that will be good for the blind, and for older users as well.

"The people who are now in their 70s and 80s, they've grown up and had a lot to do with the design of the '50s and '60s," Wegner said. "Now you have people who were active in the beginning of the computer age. They're getting old now. They have a much better understanding of what's going on. They are more influential on the products coming out now."

Yet that is not always translating into success. DVD recorders are a hot topic. They're popular sellers, but the industry is reporting return rates of up to 40 percent because consumers find them too difficult to set up and use.

"You've learned to accept the shortcomings that it has," Sciarrotta of Philips said. "To me, a DVD recorder acts more like a computer than a DVD player."

Of course, the flashing "12:00" on VCR clocks came to be the standing joke about consumer frustration with gadgets for almost a generation. But there's a caveat to the punchline:

Over the 30 years that VCRs dominated home video, consumers bought more than 278-million of them. Some joke.

Dave Gussow can be reached at 727 771-4328 or gussow@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 9, 2005, 00:57:02]