Five Reasons Why Products Are Hard to Use

For those of you who currently work in the product development arena, as engineers, user-interface designers, technical communicators, training specialists, or managers in these disciplines, it seems likely that several of the reasons for the development of hard-to-use products and systems will sound painfully

familiar.

■ Development focuses on the machine or system.

■ Target audiences change and adapt.

■ Designing usable products is difficult.

■ Team specialists don't always work in integrated ways.

■ Design and implementation don't always match.