EBERT directed me (along with countless more of his nearly 600,000 Twitter followers) to this post titled "On Hulu and Respect."
I followed the link expecting a short bout of eye-rolling over Hulu, but that, as it turns out, was the subject of an earlier post by the same author. This more recent one didn't just express irritation over the fact that Hulu — even (and especially) the paid version — dishes up repetitive, annoying ads and then claims in impenetrable corporatespeak that it's doing you a favor by letting you choose which ones you want to watch; rather, the post looked at why Hulu behaves in this way. And it boils down to respect for the user.
Hulu isn't the only company that denies its users respect. Samsung is another springs immediately to mind. This is a hastily snapped photo of the "Smart Hub" on our primary TV:
The bottom half is the only portion of the TV that I feel is actually mine. The top half is taken up almost entirely by what Samsung deems important, including rotating ads (yes, ads on a high-end TV; the one in the picture is for the Yellow Pages) for new apps and – get this – Samsung's SmartTV line. That's right: the SmartTV that you already own displays an ad for itself.
The strip of app icons above the virtual fold is labeled "Recommended." By whom? Of the six, I only use Netflix regularly, and at one point this was swapped out without my consent by a Home Shopping Network app. Quite unbelievably, an angry tweet of mine seemed to get the message across.
Top center is "Your Videos," which aren't really my videos at all. It always has a red New badge next to it. What's highlighted here are movies that are available through some of the services on the SmartTV (e.g., Vudu, Blockbuster) with the exception of Netflix, which is the only service many of us subscribe to. In other words, it's of no use to me and is a waste of screen.
To the right of that is "Samsung Apps." This also constantly boasts a red New badge. It's been featuring those same icons for months now. Another waste of screen. Plus the information it has to fetch and download increases the time it takes to load the Smart Hub.
This no doubt tedious point-by-point dissection is meant to prove a larger point. That is, if the user were taken under consideration at any time during the design process, this Smart Hub layout would be completely different. No executive or engineer seems to have asked, "How will people use this TV?" Instead it was, "How can we bombard the user with messages to get him to buy more?"
The irony is that those ads often have the opposite of their intended effect. When I'm comfortable and content with a device or a service, I tend to explore its features and, yes, even buy content and software/hardware to maximize those features. When I'm feeling pressured by hawkers, I either exit or simply block it out. Hence my avoidance of Hulu except in cases of dire necessity (Portlandia, to name one).
With the SmartTV, I almost feel as though I have to brace myself for this onslaught every time I click on the remote's Smart Hub button. My own TV treats me — by design — like an unthinking automaton, ripe for a shakedown, who responds to flashing images by pulling out his wallet. If this is Samsung's opinion of its users, then it is a low one indeed.
To pull the lens back a wee bit further: We see this lack of respect for the user played out elsewhere, and not just with Hulu, or content services in general (think Netflix's recent Qwikster fiasco), or even consumer electronics (e.g., Microsoft, Sony). You'll find it in newspapers. TV sitcoms. The 10 o'clock news. Politics.
And it's not just the often lamented "dumbing down." There's a level of condescension for the user that borders on contempt. Inveterate cynics will say that this attitude is warranted, and I can't say I'm in total disagreement, but my greater conviction is that everyone, producer and consumer alike, is better served by mutual respect.
For a start, I'd like to see a change in the philosophy of Hulu and Samsung whereby, as a general rule, the average user is considered an intelligent human being whose time is as valuable as his money and whose private sphere should not be intruded upon without good reason. At the heart of such a philosophy would naturally be respect. Just a little bit. Sock it to me.
