Whoops! D-Link Forgot the Documentation
D-Link is releasing a new router and David Pogue wrote a review (free registration required) in his weekly column. Unfortunately for D-Link, it’s probably not the kind of review they were hoping for.
Pogue’s column is titled “A Router So Complete, and Vexing”. He was generally positive on the idea of a combined router, home backup hard drive, and digital picture frame, but he wasn’t so happy that D-Link was the company building it. From his article, emphasis is mine:
>The 685’s heart is in the right place. Its inventors have noticed that our high-tech homes are becoming cluttered with network-related gadgets and their associated cable creep. As long as people are going to buy all these different network gadgets, D-Link figures, why not combine them into one?
>**It’s the right idea. Unfortunately, D-Link is the wrong company to make it a reality.**
Ouch.
So what went wrong? D-Link made the classic mistake of ignoring the user experience. In fact, David thinks you’d have better luck figuring out how to fly the Space Shuttle.
What I really like about this article is that David’s highlights of the failing of the user experience include the documentation. It is an excellent example of what I’ve spoken on about this blog before, namely that documentation should be a tool in the user centered design process and that the documentation is a valuable point of experience that can significantly impact a customer’s opinion of your product or company.
>Above all — and this is the mind-blowing part — D-Link is selling this very complex piece of consumer technology without a single word of instructions for the features that make it unique…Isn’t it amazing that, after all these years, it still hasn’t dawned on companies like D-Link that simplicity sells? They still don’t get it: spending a little money up front — on hardware design, streamlined software, better manuals — would save a fortune in tech-support calls and store returns.
D-Link spent all their time engineering the product but forgot to educate their users on how to use the new features. Massive fail, and an unfortunately public one for D-Link.
### Let us know what you think!
Leave a comment and share your opinion about documentation and user experience with us. We want to hear from you!
-->