Make Magazine has a nice list of items that gadgets should conform to, so that they are user friendly. Most of them are reasonable and should be required. Here are some more that I want:
- Gadgets must support open formats, and preferrably not have DRM at all
- No frail wires in the open that can snap off
- Any chipsets and processors that the gadget uses must at the very least have open and complete documentation
- Any firmware / software on a gadget should be free software, along with a HOWTO on how the software can be compiled and replaced by the user
- It’s the designer’s job to make sure the gadget cannot be disabled (or `bricked’) by any software updates, and it must always be possible to reload a default image and get the gadget back to its factory state
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