Are task cases useful for embedded systems applications?
Designing based on task cases can dramatically simplify product usage. Particularly in embedded systems applications, designers can get caught up in naive “simplifying” to the point of stupidity. Despite supposedly “user-friendly” on-screen menus, many consumers still find programming their VCRs a tedious, frustrating, and error-prone experience. Why? Because the designers never thought through the task cases. Reducing the number of buttons on a keypad or making all operation menu-driven does not necessarily simplify use. Users can still be left stupefied by mind-boggling trips through mazes of menus. The central issue is how many steps it takes to enact focal use cases, not whether the graphic design of the control panel is elegant.
