Skillset

Product management

Develop and maintain a useful, valuable and resilient product. Improve return on investment of product development resources.

Copy to your organization

I understand why a product being difficult to use is problematic

When somone describes a product as being difficult to use, it means that they are having a hard time completing key tasks, or perhaps even understanding what those key tasks are.

Whenever people are unable to complete a task, or the completion of the task involves what they consider to be unneccessary friction, their feelings of frustration (and possibly anger) grows.

This feeling inhibits their ability to think clearly, which in turn makes it even more difficult to complete the task or better understand how the product works.

Likely results of a product being considered difficult to use is that:

  • The user gives up what they were trying to accomplish
  • The user grows frustrated with the product (and, by association, the people expecting them to use it)
  • The user will grow reluctant to use the product
  • The user might bad-mouth the product in their social circles
I know what makes people feel a product is difficult to use
  • A tedious amount of (perceivingly unneccessary) setup work has to be done in order for the product to appear useful
  • The product is unable to communicate/interoperate with other relevant products
  • It seems like the product designers are not completing key tasks with the product themselves (otherwise the shortcomings of the product would have been painfully obvious)
  • The product has too many options