Fighting the tech maze

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Many more of you have heard the term ‘usability’ and ‘easy to use’ by now and many more are using it liberally, especially in marketing your wares. This has happened because ‘easy to use’ matters today as technology penetrates our lives. But how do you lay a claim on ‘user-friendly’? Have you measured it? Have your users measured it and told you? Would many of them in significant numbers agree if you asked them to rate it?

I had the following actual exchange when trying to repeatedly unsubscribe to an unsolicited online newsletter:

Me: I don’t know who you are or how you got hold of my ID, but unsubscribe me from your list immediately!

How dare you be mailing me and have a convoluted unsubscribe procedure that I have already gone through twice in the past and yet keep getting mails from you. Have you never heard of a simple unsubscribe button and respect for not encroaching on people’s privacy?

They: We will remove. Sorry for any inconvenience. The ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom does, however, work. You would need to click on the ‘Forgot Password’ link to get a system-generated password. The process is easy and quick.

Me: I have already tried your ‘easy and quick’ process twice.

How in the world is ‘Forgot Password + Get System Generated Password + Open Mail + Login again + Enter Password + … = ‘Unsubscribe’?

Either I must be dumb (I only hold two Masters degrees) or you must be a ‘technology expert’. Please do not justify your convoluted process and moreover, it would be best to leave labeling something as ‘easy and quick’ to the end user.

Did the exchange stop here? Yes, but not the newsletters. I finally went in yet again after the newsletter had arrived two more times and eureka! I managed to act intelligently enough to follow the ‘easy and quick’ process and the irritating newsletter stopped cluttering my mailbox forever after that.

So we have yet another instance of technology managing to cower down a consumer into submission, instead of the other way around.