Comments on: Why can’t companies build cool products. http://jlegler.com/archives/56 simple things that interest me Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:23:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Steve http://jlegler.com/archives/56/comment-page-1#comment-208 Steve Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:03:18 +0000 http://jlegler.com/?p=56#comment-208 Loved the post, and while I haven't experienced all of your frustrations, the ones I have let me know you're spot on. As a small software developer, we struggle with design every day. To do development right, we need to conduct a lot of usability tests, which are expensive. So to recoup our investment we'd have to ensure we capture most of the value -- which probably means tying the product to something you'd not like. To do development without a lot of usability testing, we have to trust that we're smart enough to figure out how most people will use a product, and that our cool tool is good enough for people to use. I suspect that we (and many other companies) are about 60% smart -- which makes you as a user feel like we almost got it right. We rely on feedback from vocal users to tell us where our products are off, and hopefully we can move quickly enough to make them right before our competitors do. Steve Loved the post, and while I haven’t experienced all of your frustrations, the ones I have let me know you’re spot on. As a small software developer, we struggle with design every day. To do development right, we need to conduct a lot of usability tests, which are expensive. So to recoup our investment we’d have to ensure we capture most of the value — which probably means tying the product to something you’d not like.

To do development without a lot of usability testing, we have to trust that we’re smart enough to figure out how most people will use a product, and that our cool tool is good enough for people to use. I suspect that we (and many other companies) are about 60% smart — which makes you as a user feel like we almost got it right.

We rely on feedback from vocal users to tell us where our products are off, and hopefully we can move quickly enough to make them right before our competitors do.

Steve

]]> By: jlegler http://jlegler.com/archives/56/comment-page-1#comment-197 jlegler Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:36:44 +0000 http://jlegler.com/?p=56#comment-197 Unfortunately we worked with support and ultimately it was suggested that we get a new wireless router. We tried that and had the same problem so we bailed on it. The product is cool and was exactly what we wanted other than the fact that it started sputtering after a few hours and when she got back to work the next day after turning it off at night it required a complete hard reset and reconfiguration to get it to jump back on the router. There was never a good explanation as to why it was happening. We may give it another shot again sometime down the road when it seems like the kinks are ironed out. As I said, I am a gadget freak and as soon as a newer cooler one comes out I am sure I'll want to try it. Unfortunately we worked with support and ultimately it was suggested that we get a new wireless router. We tried that and had the same problem so we bailed on it. The product is cool and was exactly what we wanted other than the fact that it started sputtering after a few hours and when she got back to work the next day after turning it off at night it required a complete hard reset and reconfiguration to get it to jump back on the router. There was never a good explanation as to why it was happening. We may give it another shot again sometime down the road when it seems like the kinks are ironed out. As I said, I am a gadget freak and as soon as a newer cooler one comes out I am sure I’ll want to try it.

]]> By: dean blackketter http://jlegler.com/archives/56/comment-page-1#comment-196 dean blackketter Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:49:57 +0000 http://jlegler.com/?p=56#comment-196 Hi. I work for Logitech and saw your comment about the Squeezebox. It sounds like you might have interference in your wireless network. Try change the channel on your access point, that usually fixes this kind of issue. If that doesn't work, please feel free to contact the support team, they work folks through this kind of thing all the time. All the best, dean Hi. I work for Logitech and saw your comment about the Squeezebox. It sounds like you might have interference in your wireless network. Try change the channel on your access point, that usually fixes this kind of issue. If that doesn’t work, please feel free to contact the support team, they work folks through this kind of thing all the time.
All the best,
dean

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