So Tesla, has been banned at-least temporarily to not display
Dieter Rams
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
Dieter Rams
Tesla with its lies and deceptive marketing has taken many lives. There are already few cases going on against Tesla for misleading advertising leading to death.
It said such claims amounted to misleading business practices, adding that the average buyer might be given the impression that the car could drive without human intervention and might suggest such a system was now legal on German roads.
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.
Something you are good at
Something that you love
Something that the world needs
Something that pays you well
The intersection of these all quadrants gives you Happiness.
The intersection of some of these quadrants gives:
Update 8-Feb-2020: the same issue has resurfaced, i have complained to HP again, lets see how shameless are they now.
The Brand New Laptop
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:
I assumed that HP is good in making hardware by itself rather than just assembling it.
HP has good support
I had not so good experiences with my Dell Inspiron 15 R N5110
Short Review
The performance of the laptop was okay enough, there were some random freezing issues which lead me to force shutdown the laptop.
Bad Design Choices
Keypad Color and Lighting
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>
Beautiful but Non-durable Hinge
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.
3 Months and the hinge broke with regular Home usage.
Creaking sound
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
Gap in the Bezel and screen
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.
How i Use my Laptop
Old Dell laptop and New HP Laptop
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
Screen guard
Back cover sticker
Using the cloth lining provided with the laptop when lid was closed.
<Photo of how used, tissue, cover, stand, protection.>
Even after this i got the
Complaint
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
Not Covered
They did not have the courtesy of updating me, so i followed up and i was informed that it is not covered under warranty
Consumer is not the King
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.
We will send technician to check
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>
What you Expect
Technician Comes after 7 day
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>
What you Get
Female Plastic Screw Thread Is broken in pieces
Bad plastic quality
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.
86000 Rupees for a bad plastic laptop, what do i expect ?
Not much, a replacement
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.
What if this happens again ?
This laptops hinge design is not durable, meaning the same issue is sure to occur again just in few months. What would happen then ?
Dell Laptop took 4 years to get the hinge wear out, HP laptop does it in 3 months.
What an HP Customer does
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.
Write a long blog in hope of justice and help
Save others from this pain: Go on every E-Commerce site, Amazon, Flipkart, Croma, HP, PayTM and post reviews about this product so others would be careful and not buy such shitty product.
If you plan to buy this laptop
Beware that this could definitely be an issue in the complete product line. My fight will continue.
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.
Quora Logout Dark Pattern
Quora.com Profile Callout (smaller version for mobile)
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.
When Business Triumphs user needs
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 ?
Quora is not alone
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.
What if I was asked to design this ?
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.
