Red Tape Chronicles at MSBNC.com discusses the almost uniform bad design of contemporary high tech: Customers frequently return new gadgets after mistakenly assuming their new purchases are broken. The products aren't actually functionally defected; they're just designed so poorly that users can't figure out how to work them.

Sure, all these gadgets are cool, but do they work? If past history is any indication, often, they often won't. Here's that dirty little secret, unearthed by the group of consultants from Accenture: Product returns cost the tech industry $14 billion each year, a huge chunk for a $200 billion business. The Accenture group will be releasing a study on gadget product returns later this week, but I got an early peek. Their main finding is this: Consumers often can't figure out how to use many of the gadgets they buy, and a sizable portion of those gadgets end up right back at the store.

The full article is worth reading, but here's the best quote:

Another Accenture expert, Jean-Laurent Poitou, says consumers will insist on having "one throat to choke" when things go wrong.

Accenture apparently hires very bright and witty soundbite-worthy people, because the "one throat to choke" line had competition from several other contenders (to the point that I'll give them a pass for using now-lifeless phrase "perfect storm" to describe current technology development and marketing).

Near the end of the article Red Tape Chronicles does actually mention usability research (and quotes Ben Shneiderman), but then handwaves and largely dismisses product usability research by, instead, echoing Accenture's claim that companies will instead offer pay-for-use technical assistance. Why not instead show some examples of products—there are many of them—that are well-designed and market successes?