CNN.com posted a story today chronicling the difficulties that United States Census workers are having with new handheld computers that they are to use to conduct the upcoming 2010 census. Apparently the computer interface was poorly designed, thanks to a shoddy job on the part of the Census Bureau in writing out software specifications:

Census officials are being blamed for a poor job spelling out technical requirements to the contractor, Florida-based Harris Corp. The computers proved too complex for some temporary workers who tried to use them in a test last year in North Carolina. Also, the computers were not initially programmed to transmit the large amounts of data necessary.

While the government may be to blame in this case, especially by failing to provide adequate use cases to the manufacturer and proper, thorough training to census takers, the contractor isn’t much less culpable:

Harris Corp. spokesman Marc Raimondi said … the computers actually are easy to use, with a failure rate of less than 1 percent when tested in the field. “After you spend about 30 minutes to an hour familiarizing yourself with it, it’s as easy to use as a modern cell phone,” Raimondi said.

As easy to use as a modern cell phone?!  Well, that’s a relief, considering how simple to use most of the cell phones on the market are.  (Please note my sarcasm, especially in light of the fact that the Apple iPhone, which actually is easy to use because of a little thing called good interface design, doesn’t require you to spend 30 minutes to learn how to use it.)  This is laziness, pure and simple–either that or a blatant ignorance of how people actually interact with computer interfaces–and Harris Corp., which I’ve never even heard of, should be ashamed of itself for making a strong effort to make these critically important devices as easy to use as possible.