Keep it simple, stupid

When I got my first new car, my father insisted I sit down and read the owner's manual cover to cover before pulling out of the driveway. I was 20 years old at the time — and in all honesty, that was probably the last owner's manual I actually read. I certainly never read the manuals for my current automobiles, although I have consulted them from time to time.

I only skimmed the detailed instructions that accompanied my cell phone, my family's various electronic devices and even my kitchen countertops. That probably explains why I can't master the voice dialing on the phone, why I sometimes can't get the sound to work on my DVD player and why my kitchen's Corian is scuffed in certain places.

The good news for people like me is that telecom service providers are getting the message that for services to resonate with most consumers, they have to be easy to use. AT&T and Microsoft have been saying for months that IPTV has to walk before it runs, and a big part of that is developing systems consumers find intuitive. Verizon said last week that it has developed five different ways for its FiOS customers to enter information so older consumers aren't forced to do things the way a video-gamer would and vice versa.

For all the concern about IPTV moving too slowly, there should be greater concern that the initial products perform as promised — and the promise should include simple usability. Going beyond that to simple content search, simple integration of services within the home and simple customization would distinguish IPTV from existing video products.

Of course, none of that is, well, simple. The process of making something complex into something easily understood has always been the heavy lifting of new product development. But as eager as I am to try IPTV as a consumer — especially after writing about it for four years — I'm still not ready to read the manual.

THE COST OF INSECURITY

Large businesses are losing 2.2% of their revenues — or $30 million a year — on network attacks, according to a new Infonetics Research study. Small and medium-sized businesses lose about half a percent of their annual revenue — or hundreds of thousands of dollars — according to the study, “The Costs of Network Security Attacks: North America 2007.”

Source: Infonetics Research