We are living in a fast paced world- most importantly a highly advanced technological time period.
Some of us have seen both the worlds well! ' no gadgets to gadgets' ; ' food to vitamins'; 'speaking/socializing to texting'; ' cooking to fast/instant food' etc... to name a few 'small' changes.
one of the fast changing fields is electronics- in particular phones, going from - ' circular dialing to touch tone to cordless to mobile to smart ' and the other is the automobile industry.
Except for kids (toddlers to teenagers) all over the world, we adults , haven't advanced very well in using our grey cells in knowing and operating these things! I am sure we have similar experiences to share with regard to this issue, when connecting to the fast changing technology.
A couple of them from me :
Adventure ONE...
One of these days.. most unexpectedly I got to ride a very expensive car . It was a dream come true for me.. since I come from.. and am still in the "OMG that CAR ??????" community.
here goes the complete story:
one nice and sunny September afternoon, I was volunteering at the front desk for a dance drama held at my university campus. I was busy running around helping people with snacks and tickets.
One of the organizers hurried up to me and asked me if I can drive around campus and find the caterer, who was supposed to bring in tea for the guests. He lost his way, and was tired of going in circles on campus. I gladly accepted to help, but then quickly realized, that I did not have my own car to go, as I was given a ride to the place.
Without hesitating I told her so, and she did some quick thinking and gave me her keys and asked me to drive her car to get him to the place ASAP!!
I rushed to the parking garage as per her instructions and tried to unlock her car. As i pressed the unlock mode on the key, i realized it was this CAR!
i had to press the start button to - keyless start it is.. and now started the real trouble. i could not find the gear rod.. it took me a few minutes to figure it out. i felt awkward and decided to go back and tell her that i could not drive it.
i counted 1 through 5 for a 'serenity' mode.. and scanned the entire dashboard and front panel for relevant stuff- to get the car go..i managed to shift the gear after finding it :) and moved on..
after a short drive, I heard my phone ring. The lady who spoke to me earlier, told me that the caterer reached the front desk.
I was relieved that I did not have to drive the car any longer, and took a U-turn to go back.
I realized I had to take a left turn to reach the parking lot- so wanted to turn on the indicator. BOOM.. I did not find the indicator! It was supposed to be near the steering wheel from my knowledge of cars.. honestly.. i did not find it there. or atleast did not understand how to operate whatever was on there.- to turn on the left indicator.
guess what next?? I lowered the window and starting waving my hand to the oncoming traffic-- signalling for a left turn. people might have thought I had six heads.. coz driving that big a CAR and i I could not use the indicator.
I parked the car, stopping over twice- to make sure I did not hit the car behind me. Because of the height, I could not use the rear view mirror, very well. And this car did not have a rear view camera- which is a standard feature for such expensive cars!
In short- you don't find things you need -where you need them!
Moral of the story : The grass on the other side is not green!
Adventure TWO....
I drove into the parking lot of a departmental store a few days ago, when I saw a car parked right in front of the doorway. It seemed like the battery was dead and the lady in the car could not move it from its place. She was trying to get some road side assistance.
Meanwhile, I saw another lady walk by and volunteered to help her out by jump starting her car with her own. I walked towards them to help her out in the process. She got the jump start cables from her car and gave them to me.
I asked this lady to open the engine door , so that I could hook up the cables to the battery. She tried, but could not find the lever to do that. She plainly said that she did not know where it was located. I went in and checked under the steering wheel- but could not find one readily. I pulled two other levers (one of them actually turned out to be a small glove compartment- probably intended for left over coins and change !!) before the actual one. It was dark outside, and so we could not quickly locate the correct lever.
Finally we opened the front cover and hooked up the cables. A smaller adventure to save my life.
I am not trying to exaggerate, but things built these days are not so user-friendly.
Manufacturers and designers think they are providing the customers with more options and more comforts, but they are leaving out the 'convenience' and 'user-friendly' side !
Some standard functions atleast need to be stay in place whatever design changes may come with time. Or announce it loud and clear and repeat it if necessary, so that people understand it.
With phones and other simple electronic gadgets the change is too fast. By the time the user aquaints himself/herself with a particular design, or function, a new one pops into the market.
Long live technology!!!
Cartoons : some relevant cartoonstock.com images from google.
Some of us have seen both the worlds well! ' no gadgets to gadgets' ; ' food to vitamins'; 'speaking/socializing to texting'; ' cooking to fast/instant food' etc... to name a few 'small' changes.
one of the fast changing fields is electronics- in particular phones, going from - ' circular dialing to touch tone to cordless to mobile to smart ' and the other is the automobile industry.
Except for kids (toddlers to teenagers) all over the world, we adults , haven't advanced very well in using our grey cells in knowing and operating these things! I am sure we have similar experiences to share with regard to this issue, when connecting to the fast changing technology.
A couple of them from me :
Adventure ONE...
One of these days.. most unexpectedly I got to ride a very expensive car . It was a dream come true for me.. since I come from.. and am still in the "OMG that CAR ??????" community.
here goes the complete story:
one nice and sunny September afternoon, I was volunteering at the front desk for a dance drama held at my university campus. I was busy running around helping people with snacks and tickets.
One of the organizers hurried up to me and asked me if I can drive around campus and find the caterer, who was supposed to bring in tea for the guests. He lost his way, and was tired of going in circles on campus. I gladly accepted to help, but then quickly realized, that I did not have my own car to go, as I was given a ride to the place.
Without hesitating I told her so, and she did some quick thinking and gave me her keys and asked me to drive her car to get him to the place ASAP!!
I rushed to the parking garage as per her instructions and tried to unlock her car. As i pressed the unlock mode on the key, i realized it was this CAR!
i had to press the start button to - keyless start it is.. and now started the real trouble. i could not find the gear rod.. it took me a few minutes to figure it out. i felt awkward and decided to go back and tell her that i could not drive it.
i counted 1 through 5 for a 'serenity' mode.. and scanned the entire dashboard and front panel for relevant stuff- to get the car go..i managed to shift the gear after finding it :) and moved on..
after a short drive, I heard my phone ring. The lady who spoke to me earlier, told me that the caterer reached the front desk.
I was relieved that I did not have to drive the car any longer, and took a U-turn to go back.
I realized I had to take a left turn to reach the parking lot- so wanted to turn on the indicator. BOOM.. I did not find the indicator! It was supposed to be near the steering wheel from my knowledge of cars.. honestly.. i did not find it there. or atleast did not understand how to operate whatever was on there.- to turn on the left indicator.
guess what next?? I lowered the window and starting waving my hand to the oncoming traffic-- signalling for a left turn. people might have thought I had six heads.. coz driving that big a CAR and i I could not use the indicator.
I parked the car, stopping over twice- to make sure I did not hit the car behind me. Because of the height, I could not use the rear view mirror, very well. And this car did not have a rear view camera- which is a standard feature for such expensive cars!
In short- you don't find things you need -where you need them!
Moral of the story : The grass on the other side is not green!
Adventure TWO....
I drove into the parking lot of a departmental store a few days ago, when I saw a car parked right in front of the doorway. It seemed like the battery was dead and the lady in the car could not move it from its place. She was trying to get some road side assistance.
Meanwhile, I saw another lady walk by and volunteered to help her out by jump starting her car with her own. I walked towards them to help her out in the process. She got the jump start cables from her car and gave them to me.
I asked this lady to open the engine door , so that I could hook up the cables to the battery. She tried, but could not find the lever to do that. She plainly said that she did not know where it was located. I went in and checked under the steering wheel- but could not find one readily. I pulled two other levers (one of them actually turned out to be a small glove compartment- probably intended for left over coins and change !!) before the actual one. It was dark outside, and so we could not quickly locate the correct lever.
Finally we opened the front cover and hooked up the cables. A smaller adventure to save my life.
I am not trying to exaggerate, but things built these days are not so user-friendly.
Manufacturers and designers think they are providing the customers with more options and more comforts, but they are leaving out the 'convenience' and 'user-friendly' side !
Some standard functions atleast need to be stay in place whatever design changes may come with time. Or announce it loud and clear and repeat it if necessary, so that people understand it.
With phones and other simple electronic gadgets the change is too fast. By the time the user aquaints himself/herself with a particular design, or function, a new one pops into the market.
Long live technology!!!
Cartoons : some relevant cartoonstock.com images from google.
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