Comments on: Emotional States of Computer Users in Times of Frustration

By: Documentation Usability: A Few Things I’ve Learned from Watching Users | I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:56:46 +0000

[...] posted a video a while back capturing my wife’s emotional state at the computer when she realized she’d ordered $40 worth of books from Half.com and had them shipped via [...]

By: Roxanne

Roxanne — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:00:31 +0000

I think all of us have experienced what Jane did when we are also frustrated and stressed out with our computers.

By: Everything Zen | What About Mom

Everything Zen | What About Mom — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:34:22 +0000

[...] likes to tell himself that I am irrational, emotional, and prone to lose my mind. I think he had to read The Yellow Wallpaper in school and [...]

By: I suppose I can forgo fame and fortune to keep my family (relatively) anonymous | What About Mom

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:16:07 +0000

[...] if you don’t follow me on Twitter or read Dick’s blog, you might have missed the video of me calmly and rationally explaining why Half.com deserves to flounder in its own un-live-chat-ing [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:26:51 +0000

Kirsty, that elbow dance is pretty catchy. She won’t do it on command anymore, though.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:26:16 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Rahel. I’m thinking that perhaps I should tape the picture of frustrated Jane next to my computer monitor when I write help documentation.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:56:42 +0000

Great example of how important user-centered design and documentation is.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:53:54 +0000

nice post, you can really follow the line of frustration building. i don’t think you’re alone. there are a ton of confusing things when dealing with computer issues.

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:13:14 +0000

I was just watching the first video, and my 2yo daughter. She wanted “more”. Your videos of Spot elbow dancing helped satisify her quest for more.

I think this is much the same reason I have three TripAdvisor accounts – all linked to the one email, but the interface told me with each of them that the ID I’d created was not available. Turns out it was!

By: Rahel Bailie

Rahel Bailie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:47:45 +0000

Oh, I am in such sympathy with Jane!!! I face this situation EVERY day, at least once. Yes, if you go to search.twitter.com and search for techno #fail, you’ll see that every day, I have one or more situations like this. How many times can a person search documentation that describes “idiot-level situations” when the only time you’re going to really need them is when it ISN’T IN THE DOCS to begin with??

Thank you, thank you for documenting this. I wish you could have taped yesterday’s episode to try to get NeatReceipts working – but an 8-hour film probably would get boring after the first hour or so.