This product sucks like a 220 volt Hoover

December 1st, 2008 by Mitch Brisebois

According to Pew Research, gadgets suck big time with 48% of technology users needing help from others to get new gadgets working the way they should. In a study of over 2000 American technology users, they found some interesting outcomes of poor usability:

38% of users with failed technology contacted user support for help.
28% of technology users fixed the problem themselves.
15% fixed the problem with help from friends or family.
2% found help online.
72% felt confident that they were on the right track to solving the problem.
59% felt impatient to solve the problem because they had important uses for the broken technology.
48% felt discouraged with the amount of effort needed to fix the problem.
40% felt confused by the information that they were getting.

On a positive note, the research could not find any dissatisfied Zune users. Actually they couldn’t find any Zune users…

BTW – The research was conducted by the Internet division of the Pew Research Center whose mandate is to investigate how the internet affects children, families, communities, work place, schools, health care and civic/political life. The PRC is a charitable fund set up by the family of Sun Oil’s founder, Joe Pew.

Scissor Fail via the Fail Blog

Previously in “This product sucks”
Why Directories Fail
Business Metrics That Add Up to Chapter 11
Top 5 Service Complaints of 2007