HALL OF SHAME!!!

This is a true story.

My sorority had interviews on Friday and Saturday, but unfortunately I had missed the first couple of candidates. Kelly had recorded all of interviews on the new JVC camcorder, so I asked her to watch those earlier interviews during our lunch break. She handed me the camcorder then left for lunch. I, a perfectly proficient technology user, figured that I would be able to easily playback the video as I had on so many other cameras before. I own a camera, so I thought It would be just like mine. I was wrong.
As a first time user, I looked at this camcorder to find any sort of player buttons. On the right side there were three options: “REC”, “OFF”, and “PLAY”. I switched it to “PLAY” and proceeded to look for an external button to start the recording. Nothing on the outside, and nothing when I opened the left side viewer. There was nothing that indicated play, pause, fast forward, rewind, arrows, or anything that resembled those types of functions. I tried pressing a couple ambiguous buttons (such as “MENU”) that I thought might start the video, but then I got scared that I might unintentionally press a delete or record-over button. I stared at the blank black screen frustrated and defeated.

After spending the whole lunch break trying to figure out how to play camera, Kelly finally returned. After explaining to her how much I hated her camera (and thinking to myself how perfectly this fits into the Hall of Shame), I asked her to assist me. She told me to open the left side viewer and switch the right side to “PLAY” (as I had done), then to use the little joystick on the viewer (what little joystick?!?). She pointed to a little knob on the bottom left of the screen, which I thought was a button. On this “joystick” are the words “QUICK REVIEW”, “FOCUS”, and “LIGHT”. I wasn’t sure how to use this joystick, so Kelly showed me to press it up to play the video. Sure enough, as soon as I pressed the joystick up, the video started to play. How does this function make any sense? I really have no idea.
It turns out that as soon as the joystick is pressed, a screen pops up that directs the user to a screen with the icons for play/pause, fast forward, stop, and rewind around a circular shape. This assumes that the user knows that to play/pause, he or she must press the joystick to the top, to fast forward to the right, stop to the bottom, and rewind to the left. Though this would serve as a helpful reminder to the user after they know how to figure it out, this function would not even be encountered by a first time user like myself.
The reason that I’ve nominated the interface device JVC camcorder’s play function for the HALL OF SHAME is on account of the usability factor of learnability. There are other functions on this camcorder, such as the volume controls (that double as the zoom function), that also deserve to be in the Hall of Shame. The users of this type of camcorder would be average people, most likely ranging from high school students to adults, who probably have had experience using other similar technologies.
As far as the player features, this camcorder fails to present any features that users are familiar with from existing technologies, such as an arrow icon for play or the word “PLAY”. The user is then unable to resort to previous knowledge when manipulating this new product. The degree to which the playback design facilitates attention and perception are crucial factors for its usability success. It is important for functions to be visible so that users will know what to do and how to do it (Interaction Design, 29). This device lacks those visual cues, such as icons and other graphical representations, which have proven to be the most helpful to for users to distinguish meaning and assist in recognition (Interaction Design, 99). A simple picture or familiar word would drastically improve the user’s experience, so that the user doesn’t get frustrated (like me!).
Once utilized correctly and practiced routinely, the play function may be simple to remember. The screen that displays the functions acts as a helpful reminder for usages over short time intervals. However, after an extended time of not using the camera, a user could easily forget how to use the player functions. In this case, there are no visual or audio cues to remind the user, he or she would need to resort to memory or outside resources. Perhaps this playback feature is a usable function as one “joystick”; instead of several buttons that need to be looked at and pressed, once the user had acquired the understanding of which direction represents which function (play/pause, rewind, etc.) a single joystick could be a more efficient tool. Regardless, it is a difficult feature to learn which undermines its usability value.
Ultimately, this JVC camcorder’s playback feature lacks real affordances because it is difficult to know how to interact with it. It is inconsistent with pre-existing and already learned elements of similar devices. Though the playback joystick might be a brilliant idea, its learnability and memorability have helped to nominate this JVC camcorder into the Hall of Shame.
Just for kicks, I performed a partial usability test on my roommate. I asked her to play the video that was in the camcorder. She had difficulty even finding how to turn the device on and switch it to the player (opposed to the recorder). Once that was done, she was looking for buttons just as I had done, and ended up pressing “MENU” several times. She, apparently more technologically adept than I, figured it out after about fifteen minutes. Throughout the whole thing she was cursing the device.