And there was light

About lamps that look good, but are badly designed.

Somehow I managed to get through 30 years of my life without ever installing a lamp. Until recently, when I moved into a new apartment.

So there I was, with a screw driver, a ladder, a lamp and no clue. I looked up at the ceiling where coloured cables came out of a hole. Then I looked down at the connection of the lamp: no colours, but letters. Fortunately Google knew the answer to this problem and I was finally able to connect the colours with the letters.

Next lustre, next problem. This time the connectors weren’t labelled at all. And there was no instructions whatsoever. Luckily we had an electrician coming by anyway, so he explained us how to do it.

All the lamps we’ve bought - no matter if they were cheap or a bit more pricey - came without decent instructions. So I started to think that maybe other people don’t need those instructions. That I’m one of the very few idiots, who don’t know how to do it. If all those manufacturers don’t see the necessity to give their customers some guidance, than it must be general knowlegde and I’m the one who’s to stupid to do it.

But then I’ve read this quote by David Kelley from IDEO on the Objectified website:

Bad design is where the customer thinks it’s their fault that something doesn’t work. So if you can’t make your GPS device work in your car — I mean, there should be a riot because they’re so poorly designed! Instead, the user thinks, ‘Oh, I’m not very smart, I can’t make this GPS thing work.’ People should demand more from the things they own, they need to demand that things work.

Thanks for reminding me, Mr. Kelley. And shame on you, lamp industry.