Today, I read what I consider to be the funniest usability review ever written. Now, if you’ve spent much time at all with usability evaluation reports, the word “funny” is not one you’d readily associate with such texts. At iQ Content, we strive for “clarity” or “actionability” or some other laudable goal in writing these things, but experience has taught us that “funny” doesn’t go down well with clients.

Charlie Brooker, a columnist for the Guardian newspaper, labours under no such constraint. His review of the Samsung E900 phone is what football pundits might call a comprehensive demolition. From the title of the piece – My new mobile is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary features aimed at idiots – Brooker is unrelenting in hammering this product’s poor design.

What’s great about this review, though, is the way in which Brooker makes his dissatisfaction personal. This product has clearly inflicted misery in large doses, as he says so eloquently:

It seems to have been designed specifically to irritate anyone with a mind. It starts gently – a pinch of annoyance here, an inconvenience there – but before long the steady drip, drip, drip of minor frustrations begins to affect your quality of life, like a mouth ulcer, or a stone in your boot, or the lingering memory of love gone sour.

Well said. So many of the effects of poor design exist at exactly this level of insidious affliction, but more often than not people cannot articulate the source of the problem or, worse, end up as apologists for the bad design and blame themselves. No, really, I see this every day of the week. Bad design makes people feel stupid, miserable and humiliated.

So it is a real pleasure to read such an unrestrained outburst of rage at this phone. I’d like to think that Samsung’s design and marketing team have retreated to their meeting rooms with a sense of shame and humility. But that’s probably too much to hope for. Products like this can only be produced by design teams that have been carefully insulated from all useful contact with the people they expect to use their products. Shame.

So thank you Charlie Brooker, for brightening my day considerably. Go and read his review immediately. You will enjoy it and be edified in equal measure.

Footnote

After sending a link to Brooker’s review around to my colleagues, one of them admitted to nearly buying the Samsung E900. Now Brooker got it for free from Orange – imagine how you’d feel if you actually shelled out cash for this phone! What tempted my colleague to reach for his wallet? It looked really cool, you know. Buyer beware.