Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 18th Sep 2009 18:34 UTC
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Member since:
2006-01-03
Regular users must know at least the basics. A all-purpose computer is a complex machine and that can never be completely hidden from the user. Users should be willing to learn something, or they shouldn't be using computers at all. A toaster can have just one button, a computer can't.
Unfortunately, that's just it: most people are all but computer illiterate and unwilling to learn. Any "computer guy" feels this every day, as people confront them with the same *simple* questions again and again, while the "computer guy" tries to teach them again and again.
Making software dumber is not the same as making it better for end users. Actually, most attempts at making software more user friendly for the really technological impaired either fails completely, or makes it worse across the board.
The install process on the Mac could be better (actually, it's the uninstall process that's lacking), but going around saying that the concept of moving an application out of the simple container is too much for the users ever understanding shows just what the problem really is.
That's why I just stopped evangelizing software (any software) for everyone but my peers. I don't care if they use Firefox or IE, Windows or Linux or MS Office or OpenOffice, simply because if they are unwilling to learn something new, I'm not willing to show them a better way of doing things.