A 1995 survey found that 17 percent of VCR clocks were flashing "12:00." This fact may make a great joke for a stand-up comedian, but it highlights a serious problem for consumer electronics companies: User interfaces are rarely user-friendly. While most people can live with a flashing VCR clock, poor interfaces are slowing the acceptance of advanced consumer electronics.

A few weeks ago I visited a retirement home that had recently installed digital cable TV. While the residents were undoubtedly pleased by the availability of both MTV and MTV2, they were perplexed by the complexity of tuning in their favorite channels. With the old setup, they could go from a blank screen to the desired channel in two steps: Power up the TV and select the station. In contrast, the digital cable channel required seven carefully sequenced button presses to switch between the TV and the set-top box, power up both devices and select the desired (three-digit) cable channel.

I upgraded my own home-theater receiver a few months ago. After installing the receiver, I realized it lacked radio preset buttons. Flipping between my favorite stations-which used to take a single button push-now requires me to patiently hold a button while the receiver cycles to the desired station. These designers obviously cared about simplicity. Too bad they made the user interface too simple to be convenient.

Most recently, I purchased a VCR/DVD player for my mother-in-law, figuring a combo unit would be simpler to use than two separate devices. One look at the remote proved otherwise: This monstrosity had about 50 buttons, many labeled with never-before-seen icons with inscrutable meanings. Since I like my mother-in-law, this unit went back to the store.

These experiences bring to mind the urban streetwear brand FUBU, or "for us, by us." While the FUBU approach may work for rap artists, it is a terrible design mentality for engineers. No matter how sophisticated, today's consumer electronics must appeal to unsophisticated consumers. Expecting consumers to think like engineers is a great way to get your product returned. Instead, product developers must find a way to pair their sophisticated technology with straightforward, intuitive user interfaces.

Jeff Bier is the general manager of Berkeley Design Technology Inc. (www.BDTI.com),
the DSP technology analysis and software development company. Kenton Williston of BDTI contributed to this column.