Who cannot empathise with the travails of buying a present for a child only to find that putting it all together to work, borders on the well-nigh impossible. Or that piece of technical equipment which defies logic in getting it going - or requires hours plowing through some sort of manual or instructions?
One can imagine many fathers around the world today being confronted by their children wanting their Xmas gift to actually work.
So, whether in Australia - where this piece was published in The Age - or elsewhere, Geoff Strong's piece "So where does this bit go? Oh bugger it!" will strike a responsive chord:
"We are easily seduced by choice and manufacturers know it. We might never work out how to use the damn thing but at least we buy it, and that means end of problem for manufacturer. Even better if we break it, because the warranty is probably void if we haven't understood the book."
And:
"Instruction books often sound like they are written by engineers, because they probably are. We expect to be entertained, just being informed is not enough.
Some instructions are just simply badly written, some infuriating, others so bad they are comical.
Take the Chinglish instructions for assembling an exercise bike that could be construed as faintly pornographic: "Please inserting the shaft into the orifice of the main body."
Coincidentally at the IHT there is a piece in similar vein "Need tech help? Look online" - but with a way of getting around a technical problem by going on line:
"This week, I bought a shiny new BlackBerry. This made me very happy. Then I went home and found that my new BlackBerry was inundating my in-box with copies of my sent e-mail messages. This made me very frustrated.
I headed back to the store, where a well-intentioned "specialist" took my phone, tweaked a few settings and said my e-mail messages would be duplicate-free. They weren't.
If you're like me, odds are that you've also found yourself with a tech problem that was made worse by the lack of ready, available - and perhaps most important - helpful help. But with the Internet, there's no need to pine for better support.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other users out there, sharing their experience and wisdom, often for free. So instead of getting on the phone, get online and start crowd-sourcing your tech support needs."
One can imagine many fathers around the world today being confronted by their children wanting their Xmas gift to actually work.
So, whether in Australia - where this piece was published in The Age - or elsewhere, Geoff Strong's piece "So where does this bit go? Oh bugger it!" will strike a responsive chord:
"We are easily seduced by choice and manufacturers know it. We might never work out how to use the damn thing but at least we buy it, and that means end of problem for manufacturer. Even better if we break it, because the warranty is probably void if we haven't understood the book."
And:
"Instruction books often sound like they are written by engineers, because they probably are. We expect to be entertained, just being informed is not enough.
Some instructions are just simply badly written, some infuriating, others so bad they are comical.
Take the Chinglish instructions for assembling an exercise bike that could be construed as faintly pornographic: "Please inserting the shaft into the orifice of the main body."
Coincidentally at the IHT there is a piece in similar vein "Need tech help? Look online" - but with a way of getting around a technical problem by going on line:
"This week, I bought a shiny new BlackBerry. This made me very happy. Then I went home and found that my new BlackBerry was inundating my in-box with copies of my sent e-mail messages. This made me very frustrated.
I headed back to the store, where a well-intentioned "specialist" took my phone, tweaked a few settings and said my e-mail messages would be duplicate-free. They weren't.
If you're like me, odds are that you've also found yourself with a tech problem that was made worse by the lack of ready, available - and perhaps most important - helpful help. But with the Internet, there's no need to pine for better support.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other users out there, sharing their experience and wisdom, often for free. So instead of getting on the phone, get online and start crowd-sourcing your tech support needs."
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