Aug 15, 2006

Bad usability affects self esteem!

What should companies know when they market poorly designed products is that bad usability goes beyond mere dissatisfaction n with your product. It affects your user’s self esteem.

Let me share an incident with you.

Our cable guy came to our house with a set-top gizmo. He installed and explained the operations and set up to my mother. Needless to say, she understood the procedures then, but the very next day when a procedure had to be repeated, she did not have a clue.

To add insult to the injury, the cable guy made a grandiose and a condescending statement there was no problem with the box, it was only a lack of understanding on her part. This got her, a normally docile lady, furious. This statement had an impact on her self esteem and that made her aggressive

The rule of usability s that if your user has problems with the learnability and the memorability of the product, there is something wrong with the product and not the user.

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