Product Designer | Entrepreneur | Abdullah
So today i came across this You Tube video by Improvement Pill. It effectively talks about the 4 quadrants essential for happiness and how to approach this.
The intersection of these all quadrants gives you Happiness.
The intersection of some of these quadrants gives:
It was Mid 2018 and i had to buy a new laptop, after a lot of online searches / offline store visits i went ahead and finalized on HP Gaming Pavilion – 15-cx0141tx
I chose HP because:
The performance of the laptop was okay enough, there were some random freezing issues which lead me to force shutdown the laptop.
The purpose of keypad lighting is so that laptop can be used in night time and evenings so i can see the keys properly. However, this is a complete fail in design.
The keypad is designed as such that you can not use it during the day without the keypad light on.
I have less issue with this because i do touch typing and its fine.
<PHOTO-WITH-LIGHT>
<PHOTO-WITHOUT-LIGHT>
The makers of this products sacrificed durability in order to make this sleek. This design causes a lot of stress on the hinge and will definitely lead to more issues in this product range.
It was all going good, when suddenly out of the blues the hinge started giving a creaking sound, i was confused and i did not know why that was happening. My father asked me to complain righaway but i ignored
Then few days later i observed a gap in the bezel and the screen on lower end. I thought the glue between the screenframe and bezel has reduced as i could hear the glue clicking when i was pressing in that gap area.
Around 2013 i had bought a Dell Inspiron N 5110 which i did not use with precaution and had got some wear and tear. That was just regular wear and tear and not damages.
<IMAGE OF OLD DELL LAPTOP>
For the new HP laptop, i ensured that i wanted to take care of it from the start so i got the
<Photo of how used, tissue, cover, stand, protection.>
Even after this i got the
I reported the issue to HP Support via WhatsApp Chat and firstly they sent it for checking with some validation team. I waited for few days
They did not have the courtesy of updating me, so i followed up and i was informed that it is not covered under warranty
So i chatted with them a lot and told them that this is a manufacturing issue and not a damage. Though my device is covered under Accidental Damage Protection.
Like every helpless customer i went on to social media and expressed my pain.
After the uproar on Social media they called me up and told me that they will be sending a technician to check the physical device and see if this can be covered under ADP
<EMAIL SNAPSHOT>
The techician came after 7 days and he instantly understood what the issue was, he peeled of the bezel to expose the inner frame.
<IMAGE>
To my shock the plastic which holds the hinge screws together was broken completely.
<IMAGE GALLERY SHOWING DEFECTIVE PLASTIC>
You can understand the pathetic quality of plastic that HP is using if it can not bear regular home use for 3 months.
The technician then told me that the specific part would be replaced and he will come back to install it.
Laptop without Ribs
Since 3rd Jan, the technician had left my laptop in a condition and told me not to close the lid as the frame is damaged. Since almost a week now i am just using my laptop as a human without backbone.
Now, the least i would expect from the likes of HP is that they would provide me a replacement for such a laptop which was obviously a bad bad hardware.
If HP India and HP in general really care about Customer Service and their global high standards, they will do so.
This laptops hinge design is not durable, meaning the same issue is sure to occur again just in few months. What would happen then ?
An HP Customer does not buy products and use it, an HP Customer buys a faulty/ defective product and writes long blog posts as the only way to reach out and get justice.
Beware that this could definitely be an issue in the complete product line. My fight will continue.
So as usual Quora does, i got an email, if i can answer “X” question because i answered “Y” related question, years ago.
I clicked on it with the intention to unsubscribe. When i clicked on the link, i was auto-logged in.
Hmm… that was smart and efficient. I don’t have to remember my password and the login steps are out of the way. Then i decided to log out.
As the typical universal pattern for Log Out / Setting and Option goes
In 5 Seconds, find out how to logout.
IMP: Get into a User mode and not a Designer Or Critic Mode.
This is very well crafted design, by intent the Business doesn’t want to dissuade the user from logging out.
As for any user, it would be really difficult to find the log-out link.
The Dark Pattern Rises
I was almost convinced that logout link is not in this call out. But, i was committed to logout, i tried to find other places on the header…. Still nothing.
So i clicked it on the profile picture again, and scanned each text carefully.
There it was. Intentionally demoted visually.
So from an Information Perspective, Quora does know that it’s important for users to find log-out link.
But it doesn’t want the user to find it easily. So they cheat the hierarchy.
I also quickly checked few of the popular software’s and sites for similar task. And they have it very clear.
I even thought that this was not a dark pattern, but it was indeed done with good intent. Intent with an assumption that user would not want to logout… But then, the answer would be simple, if user does not intend to logout, he’d not initiate that action.
This is what happens when Business need is forced over the user. Some product manager is given a metric to chase, say.
– How many authenticated users per month ?
I’m not frequent on Quora. But I am frequent on LinkedIn and LinkedIn has a ton of dark patterns. Probably for some other blog post (it will need a series)
Fact: I did not actually logout there, but the Designer within me prompted me to write this post. Oh we designers.
Its easy to criticize sitting switching tabs in browser. Enough designers do that already. What would i have done if i was the designer and PM/Business head came to me asking to get X metric.
I think i would start with a “5 Whys” , maybe a few more whys to determine root cause / intent of the PM/Business head and then suggest an alternative which wont be a dark pattern.
Just came across this user consent form. Asking for consent is so common these days but rarely do the companies make it honest.
This design by @UsabilityGeek is just right, even the defaults are set to off. To execute a good design, you need intent. #design
A walk down the memory lane at Microsoft explaining how Widows 95 UX was designed. Worth a read.
Designing Windows 95’s User Interface
