As mainstream technology marches on with iPods and DVD players, it is perhaps comforting to learn that setting the video recorder is still the most popular source of consumer frustration. How retro is that?
In a new study, 500 people were asked to name the items in everyday life which they found most difficult to use and the highest amount, 60%, cited the video recorder, which became a consumer product back in the late 1970s. The second least "usable" product was those fiddly child car seats, which frustrated 53% of respondents.
The third and fourth least usable products were a bit more modern: digital television systems and digital cameras. Lower down on the list were washing machines / dishwashers, tin openers, packaging, central heating systems, handheld computers, and non-disposable nappies, according to the study by the User Vision consultancy firm.
The researchers also said that people sometimes encountered problems with using websites, especially supermarket and train company sites. Using adhesive tape was another bugbear, and I am sure we have all gone slightly bananas trying to find the apparently invisible "end" of a roll of tape.
I also identify with the packaging problem - I bought a pair of headphones the other week and had to resort to a Stanley knife to get them out of the hard, vacuum packed plastic. On the video front, I have a hunch that less people tape things these days because more people may have replaced the video players with DVD players, and the recordable ones are still quite a bit more expensive.
Chris Rourke, the director of User Vision, says it is amazing that with today's technology, people still have such problems using it and that the design of many older products has not "moved on in several years". Mr Rourke said: "Some of the poor interfaces have been inherited by relatively new innovations such as digital cameras and set-top boxes."
There are, of course, a number of websites that give advice on how to use things. It is worth remembering, however, that you can go too far and end up with stupid instructions. Famously, the BBC once sent instructions to its staff on how to use the doors and also how to boil water.
