Consumer Technology: Is 'Ease-of-Use' a Myth? April 4, 2007

Speaker: Bill Moggridge, Founder, IDEO

Panelist:
BJ Fogg, Founder, Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
John Paczkowski, Senior Editor AllThingsD.com, Wall Street Journal
Tim Plowman, Digital Health Group, Intel

Moderator: Junko Yoshida, Editor, EETimes, CMP Media

6:00PM Registration, Hors d'oeuvres and Networking
7:00PM Presentation and Panel Discussion

Ease of use refers how well a user can understand how to operate a product without having to experience a steep learning curve. Products with high ease-of-use are intuitive helping the average user to learn quickly.
...meets the Boomer Consumer

We all desire technology products that are easy to use, easy to install, easy to understand. We shouldn't be wasting entire weekends trying to get consumer electronics or software to work properly when it should have been installed and working I under a half hour!

When consumers become overwhelmed by a product or technology they have a simple solution -- they take it back to the store and get a refund. Industry reports that about 30% of consumer technology products are being returned. There is still an enormous gap between what consumers think products do and what they actually do. There is quite a bit the consumer electronics industry can do to educate consumers and improve their experience with products so consumers do not have to struggle with technology. Compounding this, we are an aging society, where technology targeted at the 12-26 year old segment misses the adoption mark with the segment with the money - consumers over 40 years old. Technology products can provide individuals with convenience, quality of life and independence if they can just understand how use them properly. Join our panel as we discuss the growing problems with product design features vs. the cry for "make it easy to use" and where designers and developers have to address this issue to win back consumers.

$20 in advance on web, $25 at door (cash or check).

Official Website: http://www.mitcnc.org/Events_Single.asp?eventID=1291