The Design of Everyday Things

I am thoroughly annoyed right now.

I am annoyed about the stupid contraption that I have to use as a multi-line phone. See, whenever a call comes in, on the screen shows a blinking triangle/arrow next to the line that the call is on. Whenever a call is on hold, the screen also shows a brlinking triangle/arrow next to the line that the call is held on for indication.

Now, this also means the phone system is using the SAME symbol to show calls coming in and calls being held.

The only difference these blinking triangles have is that they blink at a different rhythm, so to distinguish each other from a call held or a call coming in.

Imagine 4 phone calls coming in at a time. You're on the phone with one, and the rest keep ringing. You phone the first one on hold, and get to the second one. Then the third one, and the fourth. And more keep coming in. Think about it. Pretty soon, you are just relying on the blinking symbols to tell which ones you put on hold, which ones are incoming, and what you should do accordingly.

You are relying on the same blinking triangles that are just blinking at different rhythms. Right. When everyone wants to speak to someone at the office at once, what time do you have to figure out the triangles' blinking rhythms??

Can't the company just make the triangles different colors? Or just use varying shapes to indicate different things? The makers of this phone are either cheap or stupid.

See, because of these people's displeasing quality, I fucked up this morning.

There are so many things that we use in our everyday life that we put up with. So, when people say you're stupid for not understanding how to use something, just before you start to feel bad, think again.