Problem solving with digital watches

…most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

A few times each year, a digital watch will be handed to me with a request for it to be set to the current time. British Summer Time, GMT or some far flung timezone the trigger event. The owners of the watches doesn’t know how to do it, and despite several attempts, has not been able to change the time.

But I don’t know how to complete this task either. I don’t do it frequently enough for it to be worthy of a place in my memory.

From an L&D perspective this should be a suitable case for a resource. A short set of instructions for me to follow to set the new time.

Yet it is typically completed in less time than it would take to search for and read such a guide.

So how would you develop someone to be able to do a task or solve a problem without having seen it before?

What I think I do is look for patterns. One of the buttons will:

• make part of the display digits flash

• make a different part of the display flash

• change a digit, either forwards or backwards

• the first button will stop everything flashing

Is four steps enough? Probably not. There are a few alternatives or exceptions that might be be encountered:

• It might be necessary to hold a button longer to achieve the desired result

• Not pressing any button may make everything stop flashing

• Rather than pressing a single button. it may be necessary to press two buttons at once

Is that sufficient?

Again, probably not. Some personal attributes are necessary:

• Be able to endure a number of failed attempts

• To have good short term memory to prevent repeating unsuccessful patterns

• To be motivated to compete this task with no expectation of reward

Finally, none of this would work without a well designed user interface. Because patterns need to be consistent if they are to be recognised and followed. Which is why I hate my smart shower.