December 30, 2015

Simplify Me

So here's the monitor in the "modern" and beautiful Fort Lauderdale International airport. 

Can you see the number of electrical plugs, wires, connections, input/output ports, etc. on this device?

Obviously, it is comical and a farce as we near the end of 2015. 

Think about the complexity in building this monitor...in connecting it...in keeping it operational.

Yes, we are moving more and more to cellular and wireless communications, to miniaturization, to simple and intuitive user interfaces, to paperless processing, to voice recognition, to natural language processing, and to artificial intelligence.

But we are not there yet.

And we need to continue to make major strides to simplify the complexity of today's technology. 

- Every technology device should be fully useful and usable by every user on first contact. 

- Every device should learn upon interacting with us and get better and better with time. 

- Every device should have basic diagnostic and self-healing capability. 

Any instructions that are necessary should be provided by the device itself--such as the device telling you step by step what to do to accomplish the task at hand--no manual, no Google instructions, no Siri questions...just you and the device interacting as one. 

User friendly isn't enough anymore...it should be completely user-centric, period. 

Someday...in 2016 or beyond, we will get there, please G-d. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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