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Comment by zachware | Hacker News Reader

Sure, this is hilarious. Take a moment to think about what it means. We all live in a bubble where the web is easy, where we can always find what we're looking for.

I'm convinced that some people approach the internet like an angry driver gripping the wheel without any sense of reality. Things like this remind me who we're often designing for and has to be done to make our work usable.

If > 50 people can arrive at a page, completely disregard the logo and read not a single word in the body BUT still find the comment form, something is wrong.

People are stupid. They are also our customers.

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"I'm convinced that some people approach the internet like an angry driver gripping the wheel without any sense of reality. Things like this remind me who we're often designing for and has to be done to make our work usable."

Now you got me thinking; the intersection of people who use the Internet and people who drive is a pretty large set.

Looking at that thread, I may never go on the road again.

On the one hand I do think that there is a long way to go in improving the usability of computer applications, and that "computer illiteracy" is to some extent merely a symptom of the fact that user interfaces aren't good enough yet.

On the other hand it would not shock me at all to learn that many of the confused commenters in this case are not just "computer illiterate", but illiterate sensu stricto, unable to (for example) parse the front page of a newspaper. Of course this is not to say that they can't learn - but user interface design can only go so far; at some point education is necessary.

Not just education, but actually _wanting_ to learn. This is what bothers me about the position that computers need to be made easier because people just want to get their work done, they don't want to use computers. Well, tough, you have to learn at least something about a tool in order to be effective at it, otherwise, you're going to have problems. So while it's good to work towards a usable interface that is straight forward, easy to use, doesn't get in the user's way and is easy to understand, there is a limit beyond which you have diminishing returns.

A favorite quote:

"Especially in Silicon Valley, where it's easy for entrepreneurs to isolate themselves in circles with like-minded techies and fellow entrepreneurs, I feel that a huge amount of startup CEOs and designers... make product decisions that appeal to their own interaction behaviour with such applications or what they think their friends will find cool.

"Building for geeks makes for great customer immersion if you're building something like (the wonderfully useful) GitHub, but that same process doesn't work so hot if you're building a site for middle-aged moms."

via http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2009/09/design-for-startup...

> something is wrong.

Yes, something is wrong, but in this case I wouldn't blame the website.

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