In this blog post, I’ll describe my experiences with a certain product (a computer monitor) and its manual. It might serve as an example of how ridiculous a poorly designed customer experience is perceived on the receiving end. Hopefully, it inspires some readers to think about sensible defaults and how to communicate them.
Let’s start with the context. In a previous blog post, I described my journey from one small monitor to four monitors in total (three big ones, one small additional one). Well, it is not just my journey – all of my co-workers have now four computer monitors for their office workplace.
This meant that we bought a lot of smaller monitors in the last months. We decided to go the monoculture route and bought one piece of our favorite model.
It arrived faulty. The only thing that this device did was to indicate “battery full” when the battery status button was pressed (yes, this particular monitor has its own battery for mobile usage). Everything else didn’t work, especially not the power button. The device was a dead fish. I returned it to the supplier.
The replacement unit was also dead on arrival. This puzzled me, because the odds of having two duds in a row seem very small. So I investigated and found an interesting fact: The unpacking and assembly instruction sheet is incomplete. Well, even more than that. It’s plain misleading.
It starts with a big lettered alert that reads “Please follow the illustration and text description strictly when opening the package and installing the display.” It then shows three illustrations of a totally different monitor and ends the instructions at the step when the styrofoam is removed (and no cables attached). At the bottom of the sheet, there’s an explanation: “The machine picture and styrofoam shown are for illustration purpose only and may differ from the actual product”. You can’t make this up.
The manual urges me to follow it “strictly” and then vaguely tells me how to unwrap the monitor from the styrofoam and nothing more. Even better, in the illustrations, there are different options given like “For binding-less, please ignore the untying action” (actual quote!). You can’t follow strictly if given multiple options and hand-wavey instructions. “Unpack the monitor correctly” is more actionable than this manual.
But that was just the beginning. The user manual actually references the correct monitor and gives usage instructions for common use cases, but it lacks a troubleshooting section. The user manual starts with a working device – and my device(s) don’t work. They don’t turn on if the power button is pressed – and it has to be pressed for 3 seconds to turn on the monitor! Yes, the manual is clear on this one: To turn the monitor on by using its power button, you have to press for three, long, “twenty-two”, tedious, “twenty-three”, seconds. That’s like having a light switch, but if you press it in the dark, it requires you to keep pressing because it could be a mistake – do you really want to have the lights on?
The device is still dead, the manual is no help for my situation, so I inspect the material a little bit more thorough. There is a sticker at the bottom of the monitor (at the opposite side from the power plug and the power button) that catches my eye. I have photographed it, because nobody would believe me otherwise. Here it is:
The first sentence is a no-brainer. But the second one is a head-scratcher: “Please turn on the charging switch for the first time”.
There is no mention of a “charging switch” in the manual. There is no switch labeled “charging” on the device. All the buttons/switches and ports that are present are described in the manual and can’t be interpreted as a “charging switch”.
But if you look at the sticker more closely, you’ll see the illustration at the right side. In reality, it is 3 mm wide and 18 mm in height. It is very small. Even smaller are the depicted things – they resemble the input ports on the right side! From the bottom up, there is a USB-C port, a micro-HDMI port and something that is encircled in the illustration. The circle is probably our hint that this is indeed the “charging switch” mentioned on the sticker.
I searched for the switch and only found a notch in the plastic, about 3 mm wide. Only by using a magnifying glass did I find a small black plastic knob at the bottom of the notch (2 mm deep). The knob is probably one square-millimeter tiny. It was situated more to the top of the notch.
I have built electronics since the early nineties. I know how to solder and recognize all kinds of electronic parts. This thing was a DIP-switch, but one of the smallest ones I’ve ever seen. And it wasn’t labeled at all. The only hint we get to search for it is the illustration on the sticker.
So – is it in the “on” position? I decided to find out by moving it down. A paper clip wire was too big to fit, so I used the smallest screwdriver my micro-mechanic screwdriver set would offer. Just a bit smaller and I would have resorted to an actual hair. The DIP-switch moved half a millimeter down and got stuck more to the bottom of the notch.
The monitor suddenly worked – after the three second pressing. The unlabeled “on” position of the unlabeled “charging switch” that you have to manipulate by using the smallest metal rod that you can find in an electronics lab is at the bottom. Good to know.
I won’t reiterate the madness that we just experienced. It gets even worse, so buckle up.
Right now, I have a working monitor that is actually pleasing to use. I buy it again – the same routine. I wonder if I should report the trick to the supplier.
We have more than two workplaces, so I buy the monitor – the same product for the same price – again, but five times now.
I get five packages with identical content. Well, nearly identical. The stickers are different!
Three monitors have the same sticker as seen above. One of them needs to be switched to turn on, the other two were already in the “on” position.
But the other two monitors have a different sticker:
Both monitors were already in the “on” position, so nothing needed to be done. But this sticker tells you to leave the charging switch alone – A switch that is never mentioned in the manual, that is so small that you probably miss it even if you search for it and that needs special equipment to be changed. That’s as if my refrigerator came with a warning sticker not to disable a particular fuse when this fuse is safely hidden away in the internals of the refrigerators electronics and never mentioned in the manual. Why point it out if my only job is to ignore it?
Remember the first manual that “strictly” tells a vague story? This is the same logic. And it gets even better with the second sentence, the one with an exclamation mark! “Let it keep the factory state!” means that it is turned off when coming from the factory? Or does it mean to keep it in the state that is delivered, regardless of the monitor being functional or disabled by it?
I still don’t know what the “on” position of this switch really is and now I’m even more confused than before.
My mind invented this elaborate fantasy story about a factory that produces monitors. One engineer is tasked with designing the charging functionality and adds the “charging switch” to enable or disable the whole feature. But she/he forgets to remove it before the blueprint is committed into production and now the switch is part of the consumer product. The DIP switch is on the “off” position by default from its producer. This renders the first batches of monitors useless because the documentation doesn’t mention the magic switch that needs to be flipped once to have the monitors turn on. The return rates are horrendous and management gets involved. They decide to get rid of the problem by applying a quick fix – the first sticker. This sentences their customers to perform a scavenger hunt of subtle hints to have the monitors work. They also install a new production line station – the switch flipper. This person needs training and is only available for the day shift – Half of the monitors leave the factory with the switch in the “on” position, the other half is in the “off” position. The first sticker remains, it is still a mystery, but the return rates are cut in half nearly overnight.
In my story, the original engineer recognizes her/his error and tries to correct it – by reversing the switch positions. The default position (“off”) now enables the feature, while the “on” position disables it. Just by turning the (still unlabeled) positions around, the factory produces ready-to-use monitors without requiring intervention from the customer.
The problem? A lot of customers have now learned the switch-flip trick and deactivate their product. And the switch flipper still deactivates half of the production without noticing. They need to inform their customers! They apply the second sticker, hoping to clear this matter once and for all.
And here I am, having bought 7 monitors so far and received nearly every possible combination of sticker and initial switch position. I am more confused and wary as if they had stuck to their original approach and just updated their manual.
But there is one indicator that might be helpful: The serial number of the monitors start with some letters and then two digits:
- 79: You get sticker 1 and need to flip the switch
- 99: You get sticker 2 and need not flip the switch
- 69: You get sticker 1, but the switch is already flipped
At least that was my observation with the samples at hand.
What can we, as software developers, learn from this disaster?
First, keep an eye on your feature switches! One non-sensible default and you chase that error forever.
Second, don’t compensate the first error by making the complemental error, too. Sometimes, the cure is worse than the disease.
Third, don’t ever not avoid negative logic! Boolean logic is hard enough itself, if you further complicate it, people like me will just resort to guessing and trial-and-error.
Fourth, and that is the most important one for me: Don’t explain things that need no attention from the user. I’m definitely guilty of that one. Often, I want my documentation to be “complete” and to “show all opportunities” when all I do is confuse my users with sentences like “Do not turn on the charging switch. Let it keep the factory state!” and then never mention the “charging switch” anywhere again.
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