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Comment by sideshowb | Hacker News Reader

And yet, back in the 90s most of the non-experienced users learned to use their computer nonetheless, in some cases gaining deeper understanding through the process of navigating the logically structured interface.

Maybe it's more profitable to keep your users inexperienced. Easier to sell them cruft that way.

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Right? Most of us who were children at the time learned how to use 95/98 by ourselves. The vast majority of people had to learn how to use 95/98, and most had never touched a computer before.

I don't think this demographic of tablet users who can't ever possibly accept another UI style actually exists. Poking at an unknown object to figure out how it works is not some ancient lost art. It's one of the most basic things that all humans do. We do this as infants.

Gods, imagine how frightened and confused DOS users were by Windows.

Totally. I was there, porting a FoxPro DOS app to Visual FoxPro and one of the biggest fights with the boss was about why I was adding multiple windows in the app.

And I remember that the mouse was something that confused users.

And the joke about using the CD drawer to put the coffee there? I see it.

Yet, all those users (school managers and a lot of old ladies) get it anyway.

What irks me most about the new Settings app is the lack of keyboard shortcuts. Sure, you can use the arrows to jump around the different elements but whatever happened to good old Alt-F, etc.? Plus, on a traditional menu bar, every keyboard shortcut is clearly labeled. Not so for Settings.

Keyboard? That old timey thing our grandpa used to poke?

Tangential gripe: My company uses a third-party web-based ticketing system, and some moron decided to hijack the Alt-F key combination.

So not only does it interrupt and block me from opening the browser's File menu, but now I have a bunch of inaccurate "Favorite" tickets.

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