Mannerisms

It has often occurred to me that the people who design electronic consumer goods must be players of electronics games.

When you buy any electronics product, the excitement of unwrapping it is almost immediately followed by the heart-sinking realisation of what you need to do to get it to work.

This is the doing of the gamers. When they’re gaming they’re used to overcoming problems, seeing their way around riddles and mysteries, solving conundrums and finding clues as they progress along in their game.

So when it comes to designing electronics goods the gamers adopt the same mentality.

If you, the purchaser, can surmount all the tests and trials the designer puts in front of you, if you can correctly understand and interpret the obscurely worded instructions and correctly act upon them, if you religiously and precisely follow the interminable rigmarole of steps you’re obliged to follow then, Hey Presto, you’re actually allowed to use the product you’ve handed over your hard-earned wonga to buy.