• Ubermeisters@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Is that the engineers fault? Or is that the people who are supposed to check for usability after the engineer is done designing the functional aspects? Because it’s not usually an engineer’s job to do this…

    Basic product testing is the foundation of manufacturing, an error like this doesn’t get all the way through production and it still be just the engineers fault.

    • Beanerrr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Checking for usability is one of the key parts of design iteration, which is done by product engineers. Source: am product engineer

      • Lazycog@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Former mechanical design engineer checking in as well: can confirm, the engineer’s fault here.

        You don’t just design it just to work, a hobbyist can do that.

        Edit: Not saying I have never made a mistake, everyone makes mistakes. And of course in a proper (especially big) design department someone always cross checks your work, so there must’ve been multiple people to blame. But mistakes happen and that alone is no reason to fire someone.

        In my first job a senior told me that you will experience making an expensive mistake and that it’ll be a good lesson (I did).

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      They probably reused a PCB from another model that used a paperclip hole reset. They duplicated the design, sent it for testing, and came back with “everything is great, but make the reset a push button before you ship it.” Engineering probably said “ok. But it will need to go back for usability testing” and sales said “fuck that, send it”

      • criticon@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Or another possibility, after proto and lots of testing: “we need to move test button a couple of cm to the right, away from the corner. No further tests needed”

    • stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Yes it is the engineers fault, but even then there should have been multiple people that should have caught such an issue along the way.

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        As an engineer, I agree.

        You cannot be a layer of security if your attitude is, “this is someone else’s problem”.

        The swiss cheese model of security is what I go by. Yes, no one is perfect, but that’s precisely why every single person needs to actually give a damn. (and why people should be paid enough to care) The more layers of protection from catastrophe, the better.

        Giving in because others are involved is literally Bystander Effect-ing your job effectiveness. Only idiots should be OK with, “this is someone else’s fault.”

        No, this is also other peoples’ fault, but make no mistake: the engineer is on that list.

    • Llewellyn@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s very strange engineer, if he doesn’t aware of RJ45 connector form-factors.