usability fail.
usability fails are everywhere and it’s sad.
user testing fail
In: Uncategorized
5 Jan 2010From Sociological Images:
Hewlett Packard (HP) recently released face tracking software that allows a webcamera to chase you around as you talk to it. The face recognition software appears to recognize lighter-skinned faces with no problem, but has trouble with darker-skinned faces.
I agree with the original post that this probably has less to do with overt racism at HP and more to do with their careless exclusion of people of color in user testing. It also indicates that HP doesn’t employ many people of color, or their engineers would’ve caught it testing on themselves. Since this kind of problem isn’t new in facial recognition software, lack of full user testing that takes into consideration the full variety of human faces is inexcusable. Know your audience – don’t assume your audience.
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About this blog
My name is Leanna Gingras and I'm a graduate student at the University of Michigan's School of Information. My main vice is angry muttering. Instead of angrily muttering to myself whenever I encounter an astonishingly ineptly-designed object, I will mutter about it here and you can read it and we can angrily mutter together. I'll also be posting about stuff I do, links I think are nifty, and places I go.
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2 Responses to user testing fail
Damon
February 19th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
I typed in this domain hoping it was either unregistered or already home to a massive database of niggling user-submitted usability faults. this is close enough. Keep ‘em coming!
Marc Toner
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:43 pm
That’s a prime example how lazy testing can result in really negative press. As you said, I doubt there are any evil intentions, but the message is the same no matter if bad or good faith…and it’s so avoidable, especially for a huge company like HP.