Complete with a cartoon drawn for my column by David Guess, Dells up and coming cartoonist and artist
I recently learned a new word I love, “overdesigned.”
Consider the car. Now, I like a new car as much as anyone, but My Dad’s new SUV has so many bells and whistles sometimes it seems almost impossible to drive.
There are functions like different settings for driver one and driver two that are supposed to read which key is inserted and then automatically set the seat location for the appropriate short/tall, skinny/fat person. This means if it is programmed wrong (extremely likely unless one happens to be a computer engineer) when the key is inserted the seat behaves in such a way as it sees fit, perhaps sending you up against the steering wheel in a vise grip that nothing you can do will stop.
Another feature is the running digital commentary for various settings, streaming across a spot on the dash below the speedometer (which is thankfully still designed with an arrow that points to 30 or whatever).
My Dad got dizzy trying to fix an errant choice he made accidentally by casually grazing one of the numerous buttons on the steering wheel. Maybe they should have big warning signs on the dash, “Do not attempt to change settings while vehicle is in motion. Do not touch buttons on steering wheel unless you know what you’re doing.”
When I tried adjusting a function one time while I was driving, I was suddenly faced with running commentary in Japanese. Maybe it’s just me, but I would like to be able to tune the radio while driving without having to look, like the cars of days gone by with two knobs, volume and station choice.
I got a clue why this is happening to the things we buy listening to a public radio interview with Michael Graves who designs simple and serviceable things such as teapots and toasters. He said the technology that uses knobs for things is much more expensive to produce than using computer chips.Also more choices and functions can be added with computer chips easily and cheaply. Since competition is fierce manufacturers can add those additional bells and whistles easily to try to be better – a sad statement for our society that assumes more is better.
This is not just limited to cars, a fact obvious to anyone who received a new electronic device of some kind for Christmas such as a camera, telephone or CD player. When you get a new computer you kind of expect it will be a daunting task to figure it all out, but it doesn’t seem fair that it takes the same kind of attention to detailed instructions just to play a CD. The last CD player we got was so difficult to program that we turned it off and on with a light switch until my brother (a physicist) came to visit.
There was a movement in England in the early 1800s, the Luddites, who protested advancing technology and mass production because of jobs being eliminated. Maybe we could organize a modern version of the Luddites, protesting overdesign for health reasons, both mental and physical.
There must be some way we can get to those manufacturers to say, “KISS” (keep it simple, stupid). And while they’re at it could they please design a good cup holder and trash receptacle for a car?
Jan. 18, 2003