Gadget Jones Diary: IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S BAD DESIGN


(This fabulous cartoon is nicked somewhere else)
Author's Note:  This post is male friendly.


Hello and welcome to Gadget Jones Diary- an extension to Beauty and the Bullshit that talks about anything gadget for power women- be it  blenders, cellphones, cameras, vacuum cleaner to phone apps – I have an opinion.    And if I don’t, my guest bloggers do (you will meet them soon:-)

You might raise an eyebrow and ask what business I have as a beauty blogger reviewing these gadget thingies. 

Well, being a female, I am always right.  
And because I am as well a mechanical engineer, I can tell you why things are wrong.  So- yeah.

Let me start off by introducing you to the concept of ergonomics.  You might have heard of the term called “user interface”which is kind of the same.

The concept is easy- if it is easy to use, almost instinctive that is- then the design takes into consideration human traits, habits, characteristics - the machine, we say adapts to the man.  An example would be Apple products.  The manual is hardly a page (if there even is a manual at all) and you follow your instincts to work the machine.

On the other hand, if even after you have read the 200 page manual and it stil leaves you clueless,  if it forces you to change your natural movements, thinking process to work the machine, then the engineers  have failed on the ergonomic front.




This is the reason why I am at odds with this SEO shit.  The concept is to design your content so machine can find you easily and can have many followers and get famous and rich quick.   That means nice graphics are deprioritized as machines can't appreciate them.  And titles are thought of for machines not for beauty of semantics.   
It's bullshit.
In redesigning the new blog which you have yet to see (as my webmaster has gone AWOL last minute- another story there), my beautiful graphics are rejected in favor of machine readability.

And so i say a big "f*ck you" to machine readability.  No matter how much machines can trace me, it is still people who will read, appreciate and recommend this blog. (Phew, I am still pissed off, so am venting sorry....)

So the next time a gadget makes you feel idiotic- it's not you- it's perhaps bad design.




----------
The new blog design is not yet ready but I am posting these new topics nonetheless as promised.  It will get arranged soon.  Thanks for bearing with me.

17 comments:

  1. I hate... no *loathe* SEO. I could care less what machines 'think' that I'll like. I like pretty websites and catchy titles - key words are secondary.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh great, I am not alone in the world! Few things infuriate me more than when a website or article is clearly written just to get hits and clicks for advertisers. You feel so.. used!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loved the Ikea-car concept, hahaha.
    And yes, F the machines, design rules!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just awesome and lovely writing.I like your style.If you have time please check my tiny
    Animal Planet

    ReplyDelete
  5. See? If you don't have a clue about what SEO is or how machines can find you, you're all happy and shit. Like me. Ignorant and blog happy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oho! I know what you mean. I'm a freelance writer, and yes Virginia, I write SEO articles (the things I do for money). It's just repeatedly writing about a topic (even something very tangential to your product) and using the keywords throughout. Supposedly, this is to trick google into putting up your article on the front page when somebody searches your keywords. It's nonsensical. Half the articles I write for these clients mean nothing (it's just the same information written and rewritten) and are far from helpful. If you did a search and got that page of the article I wrote, you'd end up with nothing new and interesting.

    So on my own blog (I do blog about makeup and skin care), I really don't give two fucks about SEO. I write what I want to write, ignore all this bull about using "keywords" and use incredibly lengthy and not-machine-friendly titles.

    Also, I read your blog because it's fun and I like your style, so ignore the bots and just keep doing your thing :)

    end rant LOL

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi ndrcvrngl -Your name is not geriatric-ergonomic friendly- heehee.
    Yes, I wish this SEO hooha dies soon!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Maja- So true, makes me want to rush and take a bath and scrub that dirty feeling of being used by SEO.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Musing for Beauty!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello Saif-
    Thank you! I checked out your site- wow, interesting facts on animals. Have in my country quite a lot swallowed by them anacondas. Heard that you should punch them in the face or head butt them or what. True?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Y- Isn't ignorance just bliss? SEO challenged, and never happier!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Krys- Thank you for sharing this! Gawd impossible writing a decent article thinking of em bots. Hmm- i will retag this post so SEO can know what i mean

    ReplyDelete
  13. LOL, the pic of Ikea really made me laugh! And the problem you're descirbing is keeping me from changing the look on my blog. It's just sh*tload of work and in the end something won't work. So I don't bother. Maybe one day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ulmiel! Well, I am also stuck transferring my blog to wordpress. Am contemplating this pinterest-like format. But couldn't transfer the followers. What's a girl to do?

      Delete
  14. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I decided to delete spam posts, as there are too many.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.