What's wrong with USB sticks that you need 3 tries to plug them in correctly?
ux.stackexchange.com
ux.stackexchange.com
1. The connector is symmetric. If it was asymmetric like HDMI for example it would be easier. 2. There's no bevel to guide the connector into place, so you can be very close and it still won't go in. That feels exactly the same as if you have it in the incorrect orientation.
All the stuff about the logo is misguided. Nobody reads the logo of HDMI or ethernet cables to plug them in.
IMO, the connectors need to be truly symmetrical both internally and externally. USB-C got this part right.
Then we have the problem of correctly implementing the various ways of using that connector, where USB-C fails horribly.
No it's asymmetric. That's the whole point of this discussion. If it was symmetric it could go in either way and there wouldn't be an issue.
Even if a user knows about the icon indicating "top" of a USB plug, and is aware of the top side when plugging in a plug, there's no such affordance for the socket.
The top side of the socket _should_ be on top, but the socket might be rotated 90 degrees, and might be on the backside of the device, requiring _correctly_ rotating your mental model of the socket just to know which way the plug goes in!
Please upgrade to USB-C to solve this issue, we are no longer supporting USB 3.0 or below.
[0] http://i.imgur.com/k09dgzL.png [1] http://i.imgur.com/6sChr0E.png
The 'top' of every USB-A plug I've ever seen is smooth, while the 'bottom' has a seam down the middle. And you can tell the receptacle's orientation from a glance just as easily, but you don't have to because the 'top' side of the plug should face the 'top' of the device it is plugging into in almost every consumer device I've used.
Top of plug = top of device. Easy. It seems more like a cheesy running joke that people just go along with at this point.
(Wow, of all the things to become a touchy subject...what am I doing with my life, typing stuff like this out? This isn't helping anyone. Please ignore my pedantic bullshit.)
I can't tell if you're joking. You've just written three hundred characters about how to plug in a cable. Why is it that complicated? Why didn't they design it to go in in any orientation?
"Plug in the cable face-up."
It's just less accurate for edge cases like tower PCs with slots facing the side. And fair's fair, I hadn't thought about how annoying it is when you have to reach behind a machine to plug something into one of those.
But then again, it's usually hard to plug things together when you can't see them. I dunno, it just really doesn't seem like an issue in practice.
What's the face? Which way is up? Can't you see that these descriptions don't work?
'They' ( Ajay Bhatt and his team at Intel ) considered that to be a good idea, but decided against it for cost reasons at a time they were trying to get USB adopted. A reversible plug would have doubled the wiring complexity in the connector and that was considered financially unviable. USB at the time had to be as cheap as possible to make it 'universal".
Incidentally in the UK we have a non-IT equivalent to the problem, the Standard Lamp Paradox. Since there is a switch on domestic electrical outlets, and another switch on a lamp, it often takes three tries in the dark to turn on a lamp since the initial switch state is unknown.
admit it. USB-A plugs are terribly designed.
Edit: I can't post a reply to the comment below me because HN thinks I am posting "too fast", so here's an update to more thoughts I had on this:
It's also age because USB-A is like 20 years old or more. Back then you didn't plug and unplug USB stuff as often, but today we use it as a charging port more or less, so it's use-case was different when it was designed. Look at USB-C which is for today's "plug and unplug often" use case, it's fucking awesome for that. USB-A was more of a "this is mechanically better than DB9 or whatever" connector than a "this thing is intended to be transitioned at least 20 times per day" connector.
I dunno, this is just one of those things that I can remember being annoying, but I can't remember the last time I actually experienced it.
Incorrect on at least two mp3 players and one tablet I own.