TECH SOLUTIONS, OR TECH PROBLEMS?
The lack of user consideration in tech solutions isn’t noticeable only in airport food courts.
How many times have you argued with your rideshare driver about the best route to take to your destination? Online maps sometimes have no real-time idea that certain roads have closed or opened, or that off-road detours allow you to dodge traffic build-ups at popular junctions.
Attempts to notify drivers of these are often shut down with a flat “Err I dunno, I just follow GPS”.
This year’s SimplyGo debacle is still fresh in many minds, whereby the LTA had to reverse their decision to phase out the older ticketing system following widespread complaints.
I’m still annoyed that since giving up my EZ-Link card, I don’t know how much I’m paying for each train or bus ride.
It’s not that I find public transport unaffordable; nor am I the penny-pinching sort. It would just be nice to be able to immediately see if I’d been charged S$500 to travel from Novena to Orchard due to some unexpected tech glitch, and report it right away.
At supermarkets, I notice that the holdups at checkout counters and self-service kiosks are usually caused by people trying to make payment with app-based vouchers or loyalty points.
At restaurants, has anyone ever experienced a situation where after scanning the QR code menu and placing your order, you realise only half an hour later that you’d somehow missed an extra step to double or triple confirm your orders, leaving it unprocessed in the system?
Even familiar household gadgets have become too smart for our own good. Imagine dumping yoghurt and berries into your new blender to whizz up a quick breakfast smoothie, but the blender’s smartphone app has hung, and the blender itself doesn’t even have a physical on/off button – and you’re now officially running late.
Stories abound on the internet of smart-home owners losing their smartphones and finding themselves unable to operate their lights, air-conditioning, doors or blinds.
Many people have been successfully nudged to be more physically active thanks to activity trackers like Fitbits – but cases of orthosomnia are also on the rise, a condition where users get so obsessed with their tracker’s sleep data that they develop sleep disorders.
