Scott Bush

The other day I visited a friend’s house to troubleshoot their e-mail connection. We’d done all the basics over the phone, such as rebooting the router, etc. without much luck. They reported that there was just one amber light on the cable modem, so I decided to take a look myself.

Some facts: the modem was a Motorola Surfboard on Comcast’s network. All its indicator lights were dark, save one: the standby light at the bottom. Thinking it was the device, I rebooted it again (as though me unplugging it would somehow be different then my friend doing it). It came up, cycled through the lights, then went to standby again. Hmm… perhaps its Comcast’s network? I was about to go call Comcast when I spied a tiny button atop the modem. Lo and behold, it was a standby button. It had been accidentally pressed, essentially putting the device to sleep. Another press and the lights cycled up and connectivity was restored, reinforcing my reputation as a tech “genius.”

But really, this had nothing to do with technology—it was just poor design. Now, I’m sure there’s a technical reason for this standby mode. But there’s no excuse that the button would be so easily pressed and so poorly marked given the impact on the user: it breaks “teh intarwebs”! Let’s go over it:

• Current/bad: black button on a black modem; its hard to notice it’s even there.
• Redesigned/good: use a yellow button instead; it’d be visible and the yellow not only matches the amber standby indicator, it’s the universal color of warning.

• Current/bad: miniscule, engraved “standby” text label.
• Redesigned/good: use a contrasting color text label instead; its easier to see and might offer a quicker resolution to troubleshooters.

• Current/bad: single-state (and too easily pressable) button.
• Redesigned/good: use a toggle switch or a raised/lowered button that provides visual feedback of the standby state (in addition to the standby indicator light).

A redesigned modem implementing even one or two of those suggestions would be very helpful in these situations. Sure, this topic is probably covered in a users’ guide or a knowledgebase article on Motorola’s or Comcast’s site—but how many people actually have the user guide? And how can they go online when their modem’s on standby?