At least they added the fuel triangle to let you know what side it is on (helpful in a rented car) :)
Posted on 01/05/2016 9:03:27 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Engineers who design computerized products and services seem to have an almost fanatical determination to avoid using plain English.
It is understandable when complicated processes require complicated operations. But when the very simplest things are designed with needless complications or murky instructions, that is something else.
For example, like all sorts of other devices, computers and computerized products and services have to be turned on and off. And everybody knows what the words "on" and "off" mean. But how often have you seen a computer or a computerized product or service that used the words "on" or "off"?
These simple and obvious words are avoided like the plague on many electronic devices -- and this is symptomatic of a mindset that creates bigger problems with other operations. It is as if using words that everybody understands is beneath the dignity of a high tech product.
Often "power" is substituted for "on" and all sorts of words or symbols are substituted for "off." A laptop computer of mine had an unidentified symbol on the screen, and only after you clicked on that symbol did another symbol appear, with some words indicating where you could turn the computer off.
Designers of many electronic products do not condescend to use words at all. There is just an array of symbols or buttons that you can either guess what they mean or else dig into a thick book of instructions and search for explanations, much like a pioneer trying to find his way in the wilderness.
My cell phone is a classic example. It does not have a single word blemishing its gleaming surface, except for the name of the manufacturer and the name of the phone company. There is ample room for words like "on" or "off" but nothing so pedestrian is allowed to upset the design.
For people who spend hours every day talking on their cell phone, no doubt it is easy enough to remember how to turn it on and off. But, those of us who have a life to live, and work to do, cannot spend our time yakking it up with all and sundry. We may keep a cell phone on hand just for emergencies -- and months can go by without using it, or a year or more in my case.
But when there is an emergency, that is no time to have to dig into an instruction booklet, in order to do something as simple as making a phone call.
Nor are these instruction booklets always models of clarity. Too often they reflect the same mindset as the devices they describe. Plain and simple words are avoided whenever there is some fancy, murky or esoteric word that can be used instead.
All sorts of things are computerized these days, and the same preference for murkiness often prevails in their design.
After I bought a minivan, everything seemed to go well until I found myself running out of gas. After pulling into a filling station, I wanted to open the cover of the fuel tank -- and saw nothing among the forest of anonymous control buttons and levers that would open the fuel tank.
There was nothing to do but get out the 300-page instruction book. However, nothing in the table of contents or the index had any such pedestrian word as "fuel" or "gas." Eventually -- and it seemed like an eternity at the time -- I finally stumbled across something in the instruction book that revealed the secret identity of the lever that opened the fuel tank.
There was ample space on the lever for 4 letters for "fuel" or 3 letters for "gas."
There is a certain newspaper whose outstanding editorials I read every day, usually on my iPad in the morning, since I don't get the paper edition until evening. At one time, it was equally simple to find the editorials in either edition. In the paper edition I just opened the editorial page, and on the iPad I simply clicked on the word "editorial" and the editorials appeared. But then electronic "improvement" reared its ugly head.
In the new electronic version, all kinds of items are grouped under all kinds of titles -- none of these titles including "editorials." After plowing through a long list of items, I discovered the new alias for editorials. It was "Issues and Insights."
I wish someone would issue some insights to engineers designing computerized products and services.
Many buttons on devices such as an iPad can be repurposed or configured thru the operating system Settings, so you don’t want labels on them at all. The perfect device would have no physical buttons at all (smartphones are almost there).
In a smartphone, the entire touch surface is an ever changing array of virtual buttons based on the app running. If these were physical buttons, you’d have an overwhelming number of them like the old Apollo command module.
I hate having to look for left-handed gas stations!
At least they added the fuel triangle to let you know what side it is on (helpful in a rented car) :)
Sign seen on a desk where I work;
Every Support Engineer should have the heart of a code writer...in a jar on his desk."
I always thought the rear center placement was best. That way there is no confusion or waiting in line (well, less anyway) at the gas station.
That’s not technobabble, it’s iconization. Switching from words to icons make life a lot easier when you go international. When you sell your product in a non-English speaking country the word “configuration” needs to be translated, a picture of gears does not. Which can be handy even for English speakers, when my in-laws got too close to Mexico and their Garmin switched to Spanish those icons made it easy for me to fix, I don’t know the Spanish word for “configuration” or “language”, but I do know what gears and a person talking stand for.
Very big problem. I see it everywhere. Computers, smartphones, cameras, electronic devices, cars.
One of my biggest peeves is instruction booklets. I’ve been known to see red over user manuals that are poorly written. I don’t understand Chinese, or English based on Chinese grammar.
Engineers determine how a product works, lay out the general package envelope, and plan its manufacturing process. Industrial designers create the external shape, appearance, and human interface. Of course product managers and marketing executives make most of the the final decisions.
I never noticed the triangle before. Now I gotta look for it.
“Davenport!”
Brings to mind a funny and old Sci-Fi short story I read years ago in Omni Magazine. Sorry for the poor quality. It's the only copy I could find online.
Engineers appreciate and speak more technical correctness per paragraph than anyone else, especially in the workplace. If they don’t, they’re out of a job.
Try reading code written by most software engineers.
Its been a few years since I’ve worked as a software engineer, but I hated having to fix other people’s code. There was no documentation or the documentation was terrible.
I always took to e to document my code so that others could understand it. I almost think that technical writing/documentation should be a required course for engineers.
_start:
mov edx,len
mov ecx,msg
mov ebx,1
mov eax,4
int 0x80
mov eax,1
int 0x80
section .data
msg db ‘Hello, world!’, 0xa
len equ $ - msg
TLDR version: “get off my lawn you darn kids!”
The world needs more turbo encabulators.
Give it up, old-timer.
Sorry Mr. Sowell. You are dead wrong on this one. All of these gadgets USED to have the words on, off, power, audio, etc etc on them. Then as international sales increased companies began using internationally accepted symbols. This has happened on things as simple as crossing signals at crosswalks.
It is NOT because engineers tried to complicate things. It is because the end user doesn’t necessarily speak English (American English at that).
Here's a hint: they're easily found on the left hand side of the road. Once I figured out the secret, I never had a problem again finding a left-handed gas station.
Nonsense.
These days phones ‘on button’ isn’t an on button. It has various functions depending on what state you are in. To call it an ‘on button’ is technically inaccurate and miss leading.
On my phone if I hold it down, while it is on, the phone asks if I want to power down. If I tap it while it is on and the screen is active then it goes into Standby. That is just two but there are several other things the button does, none of which are accurately described by ‘on’. Calling it an ‘on button’ would be the designers showing contempt for their customers.
Same with computers they usually have a ‘power button’. It even used the universal symbol for power. The button does ‘on’ and ‘off’. And it is not just ‘on’ or ‘off’. a computer having power does not mean it is useable. It could be in sleep, or hibernate, or in the process of starting up. Likewise when you tell your OS to ‘shutdown’ that is a more accurate and useful label than ‘turn off’. Powering a computer off without a controlled ‘shutdown’ can damage the software. Hence selecting shutdown is NOT THE SAME as ‘turn off’.
This whole article is mindless drivel from someone barely competent to use technology.
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