U.S. News: Some gadgets aimed

U.S. News: Some gadgets aimed at simplifying life just drive us crazy (1/15/01)

The problems with the gadgets and such discussed in this usnews article also apply to software and websites. Keep it simple, stupid.

According to a recent study by the market-research firm Gartner Group, 43 percent of the time Americans spend with electronic appliances when they first get them is devoted to fiddling or figuring out how they work; even then, hardly anyone figures out all the functions. “Most people use about 35 percent of the capacity of any one technology they get their hands on,” says Michelle Weil, a psychologist and product-design consultant, “and then they stop.”