Reliably Unreliable
Some things are reliably unreliable. I’m thinking about you, Bluetooth. With these technologies, you know that they often are not going to work. With this knowledge, you can actually prepare yourself for the failure of the technology.
The more frustrating experiences are the unreliably unreliable. This is likely the equivalent of the unknown unknowns, made famous by Don Rumsfeld.
One technology that comes to mind is keyless entry or keyless ignition on some cars. I had this experience the other day where the key wasn’t detected. The result is that the car wouldn’t start. Attempting a few hours later, the car worked fine. That was unexpected and had not occurred before. However, at the time it seemed a bit traumatic. It hasn’t occurred since.
There are failure modes that can help technologies fail gracefully during the occasional failure. It would seem like a good idea for designers doing include instructions or tutorials during the actual failure time.
