Research results show that up to 20% of work time is wasted due to computer malfunctions and difficulty in understanding operations

When working with a PC or tablet, for some reason, a specific system does not work well, or the operation is complicated and it takes time to work, so you have spent more time than expected There should be many. A survey conducted by a Danish research team found that 11 to 20% of the entire work was wasted due to ``frustrating events related to PCs'' such as computer malfunctions and difficulty in understanding operations. Did.

Frustration: Still a Common User Experience | ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

https://doi.org/10.1145/3582432

We are wasting up to 20% of our time on computer problems, says study
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-problems.html

Modern computers are much more powerful than they used to be, but they still shut down suddenly even though you haven't saved a file while you're working. Workers are plagued with various problems every day, such as not making progress.

Therefore, the research team asked 234 workers who spend 6 to 8 hours a day operating a computer, ``During the 1-hour survey period, the computer did not work properly or could not perform the desired task. We asked them to report the situation and time when they were dissatisfied with

Problems frequently encountered by the subjects included 'system slowness,' 'system temporarily frozen,' 'system crash,' and 'difficulty finding certain objects.' rice field. The subjects were students, accountants, consultants, IT industry professionals, etc., and most of them were IT professionals or heavy users of computers. Also, 84% of the problems encountered during the survey had occurred in the past, and the subjects thought that 87% of the problems would occur in the future.

An analysis of the survey results found that, in total, 11-20% of the time was wasted by the subjects as they encountered frustrating computer-related events. This result shows that users are still frustrated with computer-related problems, even in modern times when computer performance has improved dramatically.

'It's surprising how much time is wasted on frustrating events,' said co-author Kasper Hornbæk of the University of Copenhagen. and have 'scary stories' such as critical PowerPoint presentations not being saved, or system crashes at critical moments. 'I understand that this number should be lower. One thing I can say is that the public is not sufficiently involved when the system is being developed.'

Professor Morten Hertzum of the University of Roskilde, the lead author, points out that most of the frustrating events people have experienced are due to performance problems in everyday tasks that are not particularly advanced. ``This means that unresolved issues will frustrate many users,'' he commented.

In modern society, many workers use PCs and tablets for their daily work, so computer malfunctions can affect many workers and cause a significant decrease in productivity.

“When the IT systems around us don't work, it's very sane to make sure it's the people who make them, not the users,” Hornbæk said. It clearly shows that there is still room for improvement in IT systems, and I hope that it will motivate developers to focus on creating more user-friendly systems in the future.'