Is a gadget mentality counter-productive to true ergonomic innovation?
LoopyByteloose
Posts: 12,537
Gawd...
I have been shopping for a new cellular phone as my present one is quite funky. All that seems to be offered is smart phones. The market seems to be driven more by what the manufacturers want to make than by what the customer needs.
Of course, this is just one instance. We keep seeing new amusing gadgets appearing at a rather rapid rate, but I just don't see where real utility is moving ahead.
Back in the 1990s we started with the pager being a real tool to free us from having to sit by a telephone all day waiting for calls. Then the cell phone made the pager obsolete. But I just can't quite grasp why I need to have all the features that a smart phone is offering, just to take calls when out and about. I am actually at the point of considering eliminating the cell phone entirely and just using the land line with a message machine.
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Have we lost our way with 'neat ideas'?
I have a nice line follower robot that I'd love to play with, but setting up a course is rather distracting. Why hasn't anyone created a robot that actually produces a line-following course? Or one that produces a maze?
We seem to be copying, adding a bit of cute, and wondering why people are loosing interest in technology. When technology is no longer an ergonomic innovation, it becomes a distraction... and it can become a burden. For instance, if I loose all the contacts in my existing cell phone; I may have to struggle for months to reconstruct the data. But the darn phone doesn't allow a generic backup to a simple CSV text file. And I am pretty sure an new Android smartphone doesn't have an import feature anyway.
No ergonomics? No good.
I have been shopping for a new cellular phone as my present one is quite funky. All that seems to be offered is smart phones. The market seems to be driven more by what the manufacturers want to make than by what the customer needs.
Of course, this is just one instance. We keep seeing new amusing gadgets appearing at a rather rapid rate, but I just don't see where real utility is moving ahead.
Back in the 1990s we started with the pager being a real tool to free us from having to sit by a telephone all day waiting for calls. Then the cell phone made the pager obsolete. But I just can't quite grasp why I need to have all the features that a smart phone is offering, just to take calls when out and about. I am actually at the point of considering eliminating the cell phone entirely and just using the land line with a message machine.
=========
Have we lost our way with 'neat ideas'?
I have a nice line follower robot that I'd love to play with, but setting up a course is rather distracting. Why hasn't anyone created a robot that actually produces a line-following course? Or one that produces a maze?
We seem to be copying, adding a bit of cute, and wondering why people are loosing interest in technology. When technology is no longer an ergonomic innovation, it becomes a distraction... and it can become a burden. For instance, if I loose all the contacts in my existing cell phone; I may have to struggle for months to reconstruct the data. But the darn phone doesn't allow a generic backup to a simple CSV text file. And I am pretty sure an new Android smartphone doesn't have an import feature anyway.
No ergonomics? No good.
Comments
I have friends with smart phones. For what they pay, I seriously don't get the attraction.
-Phil
Jim
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But the ergonomics versus gadget doesn't end with just cellular phones. This has gotten into our daily lives in so many ways. I'd like to thing that good ergonomics come from engineers and designers, while the gadget mentaility is originating out of the marketing and sales departments.
At this point, I am feeling consumer electronics are very mature and not much that might be really ergonomic enhancements is happening. Asus has the Transformer notebook/pad that is selling very well.. but that is about all.
Sadly, I suspect I am going to be forced into a cell phone that will be a rather lowly piece of junk. So I am considering giving up the cell phone altogether. I'd prefer to keep the land line.
++++++++++++++++
Transfering my contacts with Bluetooth? I will look into it, but my present phone may not have it, just IRDA.
Same here, except I just buy the $100 for 1000 minutes good for a year. Text messages are 20 cents each, so not sure what happened with your $16 message.
@Loopy - I just same my contacts to the sim card. Do they not use sim cards over there?
To get away from the cell phone and discuss ergonomic innovation, I'll offer another example.
Edison invents the incadescent light bulb. That is an ergonomic innovation that changed the world.
Blinking colored LEDs. Pretty much gadgetry. (Can you honestly claim that we need all these blinking lights?)
I don't feel 'cloud computing' or 3D printers or even the Google Glass are in the ergonomic realm. They all feel more like gadgets to me.
On the other hand, the Propeller was definitely an ergonomic innovation as changed a lot of aspects of programing a microcontroller for the better ... kind of like going from steel rimmed wooden wheels to inflated rubber tires.
er·go·nom·ic
ərgəˈnämik/
adjective
adjective: ergonomic
1.
(esp. of workplace design) intended to provide optimum comfort and to avoid stress or injury.
synonyms:
well-designed, usable, user-friendly; Morecomfortable, safe
"an ergonomic keyboard"
But as far as the usefulness of smartphones over simple phones, I'm completely sold.
I currently have a company provide iPhone for work and my personal iPhone. We have software to actually partition work and personal on one phone but I wanted mine separate.
Work: OK, pagers were nice, a cell phone was nice then you didn't have to hunt down a phone to call that number that popped up. NOW, I have (essentially) a pager, a phone, complete access to my corporate email system, complete access to my calendar, complete access to our corporate IM application, complete access to our conferencing service (think private webex), access to some corporate applications, plus if I need wifi for my company laptop, I can turn it into a WiFi hotspot and actually have full access from my laptop. I can perform a large part of my job with nothing more than my phone.
Personal: phone, texting, reasonable quality camera, flashlight (I used mine a lot), shared calendars for the family, email, web access, tunes, gps (don't need one in my car), actually some useful apps, plus a WiFi hotspot if I need it all about the size of a deck of cards, pack of cigarettes, whatever analogy you like.
You can always turn them of for ignore them if you want.
I don't see any of the features I use as "cute" or "amusing", I see all of this technology as enabling me to do things differently, have more personal freedom and change the way I interact with my employer and my workplace, freeing time for my family and other interests. On the personal side, I have one small, powerful device that can replace many devices, none of which I consider "cute" uses of technology. Even the flashlight that used to be an app and showed up as a feature in IOS7, how often do you actually carry a flashlight on a routine basis? How often do you wish you had one? How many times do you snap a picture of something to save writing notes or drawing a diagram (which you can also do with it), or to show something of interest to the spouse when out shopping? Necessary? No. Handy? Yes! Using technology to enable, amplify, empower? Yes.
As for "ergonomics", I find the iPhone and it's software interface a very ergonomic design (more so than my Android experiences). I'm not sold on the larger size of the iPhone5 yet but then I don't have one....I'm sure I'd adapt to it if need be.
On my Android now I just go into contacts, get the menu up and hit export to SD card.
Then with a connection to the PC via a USB cable I can see all the files on the Androids SD card and just copy the the .vcf file it created to my PC.
The VCF files are not as simple a CSV but they are human readable with entries like:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Fred;;;;
FN:Fred Bloggs
TEL;CELL:04432422443
END:VCARD
How easy do you want it to be?
Today I ordered a corporate virtual desktop to replace my leased corporate laptop PC. This my entire work environment on a virtual PC somewhere in our corporate cloud. I can access it from any PC that is running the client software. I've just saved my company a bunch of money (lease costs versus virtual desktop costs) which when multiplied by 100,000 - 200,000 or so PC's is a big win for my employer (they win, I win).
I don't need to have a laptop at home just for work, I can use my devices (generally more powerful to start with) to access my virtual work desktop. No additional cost here for me - I had a device, so I didn't need to buy anything. I can work more comfortably at my desk with larger monitors (a TRUE ergonomic gain).
My laptop is a single point of failure - it dies, my access to work and productivity decreases. My virtual desktop can't be killed! (ok, if the cluster it is running on fails, it pops up on another cluster).
Corporate benefits? Cost, reliability, employee flexibility (perks), data security (no laptops with company data to lose, be stolen, etc.)....what's not to like here.
OK, so what's the issue with reasonable and appropriate application of cloud technologies?? (We can talk about the savings (dollars, power, cooling, space) when you start virtualizing 45,000 server footprints across an enterprise-wide IT landscape)
Cloud for the sake of being "in the cloud"? No. Cloud because of the benefits a thoughtful application of the technology offers? Yes!
I was looking at Samsung Galaxy smartphones with Android. Inside are GPS, measures temperature, barometric pressure, position of phone, and so on (it is a huge list of items).
I am not a corporate geek, so I don't need to have my life connected to a corporate server.
I do have a Palm Zire72 that does the Contacts, Calendar, ToDo, Notes, Calculator, and even a complete English-Chinese-English dictionary. It served me well when I was teaching 40 or more hours per week, but I am now retired.
Having a camera also seems unnecessary. Paying out $30-40USD per month for services seems a bit over the top when I get about one call per week and maybe one message. I have a Asus EEEpc that provides Wifi internet via my landline ISP for about $15USD per month if I use it a lot.
My use of the term 'ergonomic' is not in the narrow sense, but as a broader indication of a device or innovation that improves the quality of our modern lives. People crossed the USA in wagon trains. The Mormons even did it with handcarts. But now everybody drives a car.
The internet allows me to chat with youall in the USA from Taiwan, whereas 30 years ago I'd be writing letters in those little international airmail aerograms.
Some innovations, like 'cloud computing' may benefit the big industrial world, but have next to no impact on the individual user. I want to keep my data in my desktop and private.
You are correct, you probably need a prepaid cellphone if you want to have any cell service and if not, you can get along fine with your land line.
I thought LORAN was a cute and amusing use of technology if I had ever owned a boat...now that they have those cute GPS satellites and receivers, who needs that, I live in a small town and know the streets and I have an atlas if I want to drive anywhere else. That's certainly not an ergonomic use of technology...just so people don't need to learn how to use a map? Pish-posh, what benefits come from GPS?? Who needs it?
Oh yeah I still have a rotary phone in the home.
That said, I do think that most so-called cell phones are overloaded with trite marketing gimmicks that very few people will ever use. It's like C++ or even Delphi, they are loaded with features that nobody will use. But the masses are wowed by bright and shiny objects.
Things have changed much from when we bought Manhattan from the natives for a few shiny trinkets.
You just fused my brain. When you said "British Invasion tunes" I had no idea what you meant. Being British myself I was wondering WTF?
Soon Google told me you meant "60s Music".
Before I asked Google I was imagining real British Invasion music like Vera Lynn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5aeClRY4kA
When did "British Invasion" take on that meaning?
What do you guys call the Sex Pistols and subsequent cultural shift?
Fast Forward to the next selection??
Only time will answer that, it could take many many years to find out.
If I was not providing support for people with smartphones there would be no reason for me to have one. Similarly I know quite a few people in the same boat. So a lot of people don't even want one, end up with one.
I like rugged flip phones, and I miss that simplicity, as well as tactile buttons that don't force you to look at the keys.
Can you rephrase your question in a way that we can understand?
You seem to be using words like "gadget" and "ergonomics" in very strange ways.
Where I come from "gadget" is a "can opener" a "sonic screw driver". That little mechanical thing that you can use to do something. A tool. James Bond loved his gadgets back in the day. Of course now we have smart phones, an amazing "all in one" gadget.
Then "ergonomics" is all about the "man machine interface".
Edison's light bulb did not have "ergonomics". The combination of light bulb plus wall switch did. Now the human can interact with the light bulb.
Replace bright white Edison light bulb with bright whit LED and nothing much has changed in the ergonomics.
By the way "Daddy, what is a land line?"
Excellent topic!
The push for smart phones is because vendors make more money from them..the simple flip phone that I and you use for simply making "just calls" is a low priority for them...and it shows.
As for technology I have a saying developed from years of dealing with technology..
"When technology works it is great, when it doesn't it sucks!"
Your observation of not being able to do a simple backup from your phone is an example of how technology can be and is used to ensnare the customer so they are dependent.
FWIW..the fact that you can't do a backup was intentionally designed into the product...I had a long talk with LG tech on a similar topic a couple of years ago...the third engineer I finally was able to get hold of finally admitted as much. Ironically the development tools they use to design the phone does have backup capability..and the hook into the phone is disabled prior to production preventing the customer access to their data.
Its all about making as much money off the customer as they can.
I understand what you are explaining.
The Edison bulb versus blinking LEDs is a good example...it is just a matter of diminishing returns.
Google Glass..it may be a game changer..billions of video sensors worldwide...but the invention of photography was the real innovation.
3D printers...just a new way to do an old method...additive manufacturing..cave men did it with pottery.
"Cloud computing"...a thinly veiled movement to extract more money out of the customer while paying for the company's server farm.
You forgot to tell us how much the "convenience" is costing.....
Hmm..I a bit confused here.
How is this again cheaper for the end user?
You are using YOUR hardware to access the cloud...earlier you used THE COMPANY COMPUTER.
Sounds like the costs were shifted to the employee...from the company.
And that has the game plan behind virtual offices for a long time.
"That said, I do think that most so-called cell phones are overloaded with trite marketing gimmicks that very few people will ever use. It's like C++ or even Delphi, they are loaded with features that nobody will use. But the masses are wowed by bright and shiny objects. "
I think that comment sums up the cell phone market very well.
From a marketing standpoint, manufacturers have to include the "bright , shiny objects" to stand out in a maturing commondity market. One of the big concerns for these companies is that cell phone adoption is slowing...aka the market is becoming saturated...and their business plans depend on continued growth.. like a tumor they will survive only if they grow larger.
So they are in the Swiss Army knife mode...adding more and more features that offer less and less utility.
And the cost for that convenience was....
My point is that all these conveniences come at a cost..some of it that is justified while most of it not.
LOL...when two generations collide.
I have computers already whether I use them for work or not so there is no additional cost to me in a BYOD environment. I gain freedom and flexibility in my work environment. I help the company reduce costs as a stakeholder being both an employee and a stock owner, reduced costs are good...again at no additional cost to me and with intangible benefits.
If I did not have a PC you use or was an office worker, I could get a thin client for my desk.
When those savings are spread across 200,000 PC those are considerable savings again at no cost to me.
I didn't forget. I see it as a matter of value not a matter of cost. Actual cost depends on the rate plan that you find that meets your needs.For me at this time, I find enough value in a smartphone over a simple cell phone to warrant any cost differences.
Cost can be an apples to apples comparison that can in reality mean very little. Value is what makes Loopy's question interesting. For his needs and situation, there is no value in a smartphone, his needs are met with a simpler solution. For my current needs and situation, I find value in a smartphone.
If cost is the driver, then why are there 4 door sedans that range in cost from fifteen thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. Why would anyone pay more than $15k?? It must be the value that people find in the various offerings, not just the cost. I've never paid much more than $20k for a new car.
If cost is the driver, then why are there premium movie channels? TV is TV, why pay all that extra money for something I never really watch? Other people have every channel there is and still don't watch that much.....but they must find some value in it that justifies the extra cost to them (we don't have cable/satellite, my TV costs me $8.95 per month) because I find no value in anything more.
So the questions always comes down to how much is that "convenience", "prestige", "quality", "intangible factor" costing you? Which can't be answered across the board because everyone values those intangible factors differently. You can't begrudge someone paying for their intangibles just because you wouldn't pay for the same intangibles.
Innovation is like technology, it's neither good nor bad...it's how it is used and applied and the value people find in it.
My Android Moto Droid 4, with keyboard no less, is worth every penny I pay each month. That cost is about $50 now that the phone is paid off... Generally, I've been on some plan with others to keep the cost down, but even if it were $100, I would easily pay it.
GPS / Nav systems. Yeah, I can read maps, have great sense of direction, can navigate in various cities with few problems. The GPS / Nav system saves me time in every case. I'll go somewhere, need time estimates, get those, change in route, deal with that, never been there before and didn't have time to prep the trip with a map, deal with that, etc... This, by itself adds up to a few hours of dealing with directions, maps, and logistics each month. Given a simple $50 - $100 / hour rule, the tech is paid for right there.
Of course, phone calls. No brainer. But one can get those really cheap, so maybe that doesn't count.
Text / E-mail / SKYPE, etc... I connect with a lot of people for both business and just fun. Maintaining these connections via voice takes time. The time isn't the problem, because I have that for people who matter. It's getting both their time and mine to sync up. That's worth the option of communicating via text / simple media, photos, sounds, whatever.
Authoring content. I can and do write on my phone. Sometimes it's programs in some BASIC I got for free and that works well. Often, it's notes, and I'll use the voice feature for input regularly. This is better than voice recorders in that I get a very reasonable transcript I can use in other documents. Capture ideas, take quick info down, even transcribe parts of a radio show. Did this with NPR a while back. It worked amazingly well.
E-mail is nice to have. I use it.
Web. Quick searches on lots of things without having to go and find a computer. Awesome. Worth every penny. Push a bunch of stuff to Google, and get it anywhere too.
Those $$$ per month can very easily buy a few man days worth of time, because I can get some things done when they can or need to get done rather than queue them. So I get the queue time for my purposes.
Buying the phone would have been $600 or so. And what ended up happening is it got paid over time. No worries. Great phone, and I got more than I put in and still do.
Honestly, the one thing I've not yet tried, but plan to, is to get the HDMI adapter cable and a blue tooth keyboard / mouse combo that folds up or something. It's highly likely to work reasonably as a quick, hook it up and go, type computer. That means I can leave the laptop more often, do more with the phone, and do it in a variety of places with few worries, push it all to the cloud, or write it all to a flash drive. Whatever makes sense. Maybe e-mail it for later. Print even. (yes that works, but you gotta do the setup and it's a PITA)
The move off of a desktop was a little painful. Laptops caught up, and I've no trouble now. For the odd thing which involves a big data set, such as a VM, or large model of some sort, a desktop would be nice. I just deal on those, because the other savings buys me more time than I lose in those scenarios.
Now that I have the laptop, I've been eyeing tablets, but I'm just not there yet. If I have to carry something I can actually do work on, the laptop makes sense, and stuffing a tablet in there is spiffy, but not really a value add for me right now.
If I can ditch the laptop for a nice fraction of use cases, I will still use a phone, so it's the phone I target. Plenty can be done now, and the service charges are something I would love to pay less for, but the current rates, crappy as they are, buy me more than I pay for the service, so I'm in!
Status, etc... plays no factor. I've never really bought into those things. It's about what I can do and how that impacts my time and communication. Not sure I see it changing anytime soon either. On all the things above, I don't rate the Apple devices as highly, though their user interaction model is superior. I just don't like the overly refined design. My moto is kind of chunky, but it's battery runs a long time, it's tough, has keyboard, etc... Very useful and I can handle it reasonably with few worries.
Regarding ergonomics... Well, the phones are sexy, and we've done a lot with touch. Real innovation there, if you ask me, but that's not really the whole story. Most of the phones are simple brick like things. They might be thin, or have big speakers, screens, whatever.
The real innovation is in things like better voice input and recognition, touch character input schemes, which get better, smarter all the time, and enough applications and some programability round out the package. What we are innovating on is getting things small and simple. It's the 80/20 rule, watered down to maybe 70/30, where a lot of things can be done. Maybe not optimally, but that's not the point at all. Get a laptop or tablet or desktop or build your own for that. It's about making effective use of time and communications of all kinds. Big innovation there.
If I had to go back to the 90's with expensive analog only phones, pagers, bulky, slow laptops, big iron workstations, etc... I think I would be shocked at just how much more time things really do take. No thanks. I've got a lot of things to do, and phones allow me to do far more of them overall than not.
And when I want to, just turn it off. Relax, no worries. That is what "airplane mode" is for. Either I'm outside doing simple human things, or I've got a podcast or music to listen to and the whole thing reduces down to a simple media player that will go more than 12 hours, if I want it to. Nice!
Here's one other basic Potatohead metric:
What does a hobby / technology investment cost? Say it's X dollars / month, or it's a one time investment of Y. Whatever right? So then, what does that investment get me in terms of time to pay it back? I've asked this question all the time over the years. Get a hobby computer, and do something with it to pay for the computer. Get a net connection, do something to make it pay for itself. Get a phone, same deal.
Truth is, I can free up enough time with the phone to do a bit of contract work which pays for the phone! And that's really how I balance these things.
You had to pay for your computer...and the company is getting free use of it.
If it is okay, then it should be okay with them if you use the company car for personal use..same thing right?
And the company doesn't have to pony up for 200,000 computers...or their software...or the eventual upgrades.
This line of "it good for you" comes from the same people who said "Trust us...your new cubical is better than your old office". ;<)
As I said, you forgot to mention how much this cost in dollars and cents.
I am not having technology...nor do I deny others the use of it..I just acknowledge that there IS a cost.
So in your case...have you tallied up the cost for you?
Just a simple question...what does it cost you in dollars and cents to have the technology?
Its a question that every successful business has to ask and answer.
The companies that offer you the lure of technology in whatever form know exactly their expenses...and calculate that they can make a significant profit from those who will take the bait.
Another question...many of us like to argue that technology is a "time saver"...so if time = money...what do you do with your extra time?