Two perspectives:
The Designer: Make something idiot proof and the universe will create a bigger idiot.
Or
The User: Just because it makes sense to you does not mean it will to anyone else.
And it say “Hold your finger” not “Place your finger on the screen.”
I know this is a joke but I have seen designers make these sort of mistakes.
Mine has one. It’s part of the touchscreen. You put your finger/ thumb on that part of the screen whenever it asks for your fingerprint.
I wonder if there is a job where you test user interfaces by deliberately misunderstanding instructions? I feel I’d be good at it.
I had a lecture on that at university.
A group of students were given a car manual and told to follow the operating instructions in a completely literal manner.
He gave several examples that were pretty funny. The only incident I remember was the instruction to “Remove Handbrake” as part of the staring the car and moving off.
Remove Handbrake…The student pulled out a screw driver and started disassembling the handbrake and removing it from the car.
That’s genuinely a great way to evaluate a manual. People who read a manual likely read it because they don’t know much about the matter.
And if they don’t know much about the matter, they will not interprete or guess anything, but do exactly what’s written in that manual.
