A halo effect is described by Merriam-Webster as a generalization from the perception of one outstanding personality trait to an overly favorable evaluation of the whole personality. Michael Jackson’s fans are a good example of the halo effect in action. That he’s a cultural icon with so much talent clouds the vision of those who overlook the bizarre, degenerate behavior of their king of pop

The halo effect is also broadly applied to technology. Computers, PDAs, and cell phones are all wonderful in many ways. People often ascribe goodness to them, and neglect the negative ways in which they might be affecting us, or the environment we live in.

In a CNET blog post titled The travesty of techno-phobic doctors, Mike Yamamoto, can’t seem to understand why doctors don’t take up all of the technology that is being heavily marketed by the tech industry:

“For some reason, despite all the obvious benefits, many physicians have shown reluctance—sometimes even phobia—toward PCs and PDAs, even though they regularly use some of the world’s most sophisticated technological equipment in treating their patients.

…

“until they get over it [their technophobia], we may all lose out”.

That post is a perfect example of the halo effect being applied to technology. The tech companies marketing departments feed and milk the halo effect for maximum benefit to themselves.

Mr. Yamamoto doesn’t even stop to ponder the downsides of tech adoption by the healthcare professionals, or the possible reasons why they may be rejecting the latest gadgets. It could be that PDAs or Tablet PC’s don’t meet the needs of physicians. It could be that poorly designed software can cause medication errors. Who’s going to fix things when they break? Does that mean they have to hire an IT guy for the office now? Isn’t it just a bit scary that security problems in today’s operating systems and networks dominate the tech headlines? We are talking about people’s personal medical information here, right?

Another good example of halo effect would be the school that’s swapping textbooks for laptops.

Beyond the bells and whistles, the technology has to do as good of a job, or better than the current methods. If not, then the technology should be rejected until the designers get it right. Mr. Yamamoto, don’t blame the consumers for the tech industries failings. Until the technology industry understands good design, we are all losing out.

(Thanks to Question Technology for pointing this one out to me.)