Devices Designed By People Who Like Games
I read an entry from a pilot on an aviation related blog about a hand held GPS receiver, intended for use by general aviation pilots, that in his opinion was "designed by people who like games."
I can sympathize with that statement. There are all sorts of bells and whistles, features and options that can be relatively cheap to implement in software but can end up leaving the user feeling like they are trying to solve a puzzle.
We all have experienced the frustration of using consumer devices and software applications, that have way more "features" than they need, sometimes at the expense of proper functionality of the basic purpose of the tool. A good tool is only as complex as necessary, a bad tool is the equivalent of a fake swiss army knife that has 15 tools but isn't much good for anything.
It can be particularly frustrating when a software application that performed it's intended function is constantly changed, sometimes to the point where users finally opt out of using it, or will once a better option becomes available such as what happened with Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Whether we are talking about software, consumer devices, traditional single purpose tools or multi-purpose tools there are some that are high quality and some that aren't.
This scrapbook of Bad Human Factors compiled by Michael J. Darnell has some good examples of poor designs in everyday objects.