Video recorders are the most difficult objects to use in the home, according to a User Vision survey of consumer frustration.

Having a coffee and cake with Jakob Nielsen, the web usability expert from Nielsen Norman Group, I asked him what was holding up progress on the web. "Three things, really: I call them lazy, stupid and evil design," he replies.

Think the teenager in your house can out-surf you? Think again. So says a study of 13- to 17-year-olds released Monday by the Nielsen Norman Group. The results suggest that some businesses are using ineffective strategies to target a teen market of some 20 million.