Have you ever rolled out an upgrade only to have people complain that they preferred the old version?
The Situation
I am in the process of replacing our last CRT holdouts with spanking new wide screen LCDs. Amazingly, some users are fretting about this. The problem is that they proofread on screen and have had bad experiences with pixelated LCDs in the past. While I wouldn’t begrudge their fears, I do feel a certain amount of exasperation. Like the troglodytes in Plato’s allegory of the cave, they are overly content with their dim, blurry views of virtual reality. Moreover, I don’t want to force them out of the cave into the sunshine. I just want to upgrade the fire to a lantern and smooth out the cave wall, so to speak.
Step 1
The first step was to select a monitor model. It was surprisingly hard to find reviews that focused on the monitor’s presentation of text. These persnickity users need to be able to spot an italic comma hidden in normal text. But the LCD market is all about gaming or watching movies. Contrast ratio! Woohoo! Color! Yeehaw! I finally settled on the 22″ Samsung SyncMaster 2220wm. Fresh out of the box, it was like a wall of light. You could use it to treat depression in stuffed donkeys. I probably spent 1/2 hour fiddling with the controls to get it just right, i.e., toned waaayyy down. Brightness down to well below 50. Then, a day later, after (ahem) reading the manual, I discovered a shortcut to “Text” mode. It automatically dims the monitor and changes the color temperature. Nice.
Step 2
The second step was the mention the monitor to the user. You would think the process would be like a commercial for a flat screen TV, where the customer drools unself-consciously in anticipation. Alas, this is slightly more difficult than getting our baby to eat a string bean. I had to mention the new monitor to her in passing and indicate that it was optional. I set it up and tuned it on my computer and asked her for some “sample documents” so that we could verify it would work okay. I waited a couple of days and told her that my examination of the documents didn’t turn up any problems with the monitor and invited her to view it.
Step 3 (not profit, yet)
The third step was to actually put the user in front of the monitor. Slyly, I didn’t let her sit down right away. Instead, I sat there talking and clicking, resizing windows, and even ignored her the first few times she asked if she could drive. Finally I said “Oh sure,” and got up. Upon sitting down she immediately grimaced “Oh, this isn’t good.”
Step 4
My hands clenched and I contained a sigh. “You know,” I said with feigned cheer, “it didn’t look good to me at first, but after a few minutes my eyes adjusted.”
A few minutes later, “No, it still doesn’t look right.”
So I changed the topic of conversation, she sat back, and a few minutes later she glanced at the screen.
“Hey, it looks good now. What happened?”
Turns out it was the distance. She was happiest about 2 feet from the monitor. Which makes sense becuase it’s a freakin’ 22″ monitor!
Step 5
Next user. Rinse and repeat. Ugh.
