Ridiculous Design Features.

[Damo]

Why would anyone design a light that need to be connected to wifi and operated thru an app..!?!?

I mean, I get that someone would want the feature or find the capability useful, or just cool, perhaps.
But this light..NEEDS it..

Says so right there in the "System Requirements.."

I'm not joking..
I bought a light to plug in and switchon to provide stable illumination. This will not do that.
It pulses.. For 3 minutes. Then settles in to 50% brightness.
Seriously, WTF.

How the feck did this get thru to product realease like this..?
Why would anyone think this would a good idea..?
I am reminded of @zwei's sig.. "Far too many items in the world are designed, constructed and foisted upon us with no understanding-or even care-for how we will use them."

Can someone explain how this thought process came to be.? (Unless it is to create an environment in preparatrion for a subscription model..!?)

Buyer beware.. Need less to say, this one is going back.

[matt]

I've worked in product development for independents and inventors for 20 years. You would be amazed at how many bad product ideas there are out there. There are a lot of good products too of course, but you'd be amazed at how many bad products get pitched to me to do the physical design.

My wife likes to watch Shark Tank for some reason. To me, that is mostly just an hour of cringe. It's clear that some percentage of consumers are stupid beyond belief. Bad products don't have to fool everybody, just enough to make Mr. Wonderful a million bucks.

I've gotten pickier about the product design jobs I take. The only people that wind up making money on these are me and the (usually Chinese) mold builders.

Your light product was probably intended to be run by a scheduler app, and they saved money by leaving out an on/off switch or a timer/interface on the light. And of course just about everything these days is a trojan for data collection.

[Damo]

I've worked in product development for independents and inventors for 20 years. You would be amazed at how many bad product ideas there are out there. There are a lot of good products too of course, but you'd be amazed at how many bad products get pitched to me to do the physical design.

My wife likes to watch Shark Tank for some reason. To me, that is mostly just an hour of cringe. It's clear that some percentage of consumers are stupid beyond belief. Bad products don't have to fool everybody, just enough to make Mr. Wonderful a million bucks.

Yup, I believe that. I've seen enough examples of stupid products and question who would want it. But... humans, right..!?

Your light product was probably intended to be run by a scheduler app, and they saved money by leaving out an on/off switch or a timer/interface on the light. And of course just about everything these days is a trojan for data collection.

Data collection... Yes, of course.. This way google (or amazon) can know when you turn a light on. Pattern tracing..

Funny enough, it does have an actual on/off rocker switch.

[Frederick_Law]

Why would anyone design a light that need to be connected to wifi and operated thru an app..!?!?

I bought a light to plug in and switchon to provide stable illumination. This will not do that.

Like Matt said: someone will not read the requirements and bought it

I bought one, no switch. Wave your hand to turn on and off. For the laundry sink.
Works good.
Just had a hard time plug it in to the socket behind the washer and dryer.

[Damo]

Like Matt said: someone will not read the requirements and bought it

I read the requirements alright. I always do.
My mistake was the assumption that the requirements were for the connectivity features on the firmware for the remote interaction.
Never in my wildest dystopian imagination did I assume that it was "essential" to download an app, create an account, login on my phone and set up a profile to simply make a fecking light work properly.

I bought one, no switch. Wave your hand to turn on and off. For the laundry sink.
Works good.
Just had a hard time plug it in to the socket behind the washer and dryer.

Ah yes. That is fair. I have a similar one in my backyard woodshop. Motion detection.
Turns off after a spell, turns back on when it "sees" me.
Aside from the few rare occasions where I am in the back end of the shed for a while and I need to walk towards it to remind it I am here.
(Because there is no way to turn off the motion timer.. ) But it does at least turn on to full illumination as it should, without an app.
Unlike this one.

[SPerman]

If I am buying a tactical flashlight (whatever that is) I expect it to signal SOS and blind attackers and have a built in sat-phone. However, if I am buying a normal flashlight, it needs to be binary. On/Off. Unfortunately, whoever is designing flashlights in China thinks we need them all to be multifunction.

[Frederick_Law]

Overload with features that user don't use and fail on the one they need.
Sounds like something used before .....

[jcapriotti]

If I am buying a tactical flashlight (whatever that is) I expect it to signal SOS and blind attackers and have a built in sat-phone. However, if I am buying a normal flashlight, it needs to be binary. On/Off. Unfortunately, whoever is designing flashlights in China thinks we need them all to be multifunction.

[Damo]

If I am buying a tactical flashlight (whatever that is) I expect it to signal SOS and blind attackers and have a built in sat-phone. However, if I am buying a normal flashlight, it needs to be binary. On/Off. Unfortunately, whoever is designing flashlights in China thinks we need them all to be multifunction.

Unnecessarily added features seems to be the default nowadays.

I can only imagine that affects cost..?!

[Damo]

Overload with features that user don't use and fail on the one they need.
Sounds like something used before .....

I see what you did there..

[Frederick_Law]

Unnecessarily added features seems to be the default nowadays.

I can only imagine that affects cost..?!

It may not.
Custom PCB got cheap enough even at hobby level. Arduino and RPi are cheap and powerful.
Just find some kid to program it.

[Damo]

It may not.
Custom PCB got cheap enough even at hobby level. Arduino and RPi are cheap and powerful.
Just find some kid to program it.

Hmmm.. You have a point.

And also, may have stumbled onto the root cause of the stupidity behind the "design features" of the LED Bar Light I returned.
It was programmed by a kid. Some fresh outa school Know-it-all that likely has no real world understanding..