“What’s a Browser?” – Remembering the Non-Tech-Savvy User
spin.atomicobject.com
spin.atomicobject.com
They are the younger generation.
The generation that is used to tech that "just works", without ever having to figure out why it doesn't.
Heck, I've even had a few people in their 40s and 50s quietly messaage me on Android forums asking for how they can learn more about development and recommendations for learning the basics for programming. Most of that is just from someone that one day decided to root their device and then it opened up a "can of worms" that lead down a path of curiosity. I'd say if a person has the spark of curiosity to learn, they will do it regardless of device. It matters more though on if they're encouraged and are shown that even they can learn what many people think of as "magic" (even though we all know it isn't :) ).
But GUIs are sure trying to kill it.
Why do you think most young devs today play a lot with Javascript? It's the only thing that is minimally inviting to curiosity.
This is so common to non tech-savvy people (I observed this dozens of time) that it makes you wonder why browsers adopted single bar for searching AND entering the URLs so late. This, when implemented properly, solves the problem, because usually you only need to type just few letters from site name and hit Enter to go there.
http://readwrite.com/2010/02/11/how_google_failed_internet_m...
In many cases, companies that develop software for non-tech-savvy users go the extra mile to make things easy to use. For me, it's been easy to believe that it was somewhat predatory to make your "thing" a complete portal, but I can see now that it is really a consequence of trying to approach users at their level. What irks me is when it seems like a conscious lock-in strategy.
The funny thing about it though is that he usually says things like "the page needs more pop", "make that bright red and bold because I can't see it", etc.. AKA, he has no idea what he's talking about but thinks he does. I stopped taking new work from him because it was the most infuriating thing imaginable.
I often feel bad for small business users. If they’re living in Microsoft’s world and without volume licensing they are forced into whatever new flavors of Office and Windows are in the pipe when they get a new computer. You try explaining that no Office 2013 isn’t really all that much better for basic functionality than Office 2003. Or anything about Windows 8.
She works by the hour and earns massive amount of cash.
I imagine that in the eyes of tax experts, we are all totally ignorant of how we could make the most out of the tax system.
*Even just by asking a friend. In my experience, tech-savvy friends (including myself) are extremely willing to explain how things work, since it's a welcome respite from "just fix it"
Some of the best examples: - 'the green' for the desktop (that teal desktop background from Win98) - 'e' for the internet ("So when I'm on e...") - 'the computer' for the screen - particularly hard to diagnose over the phone
Also, several times I fell foul to the old bash.org facepalmer of physical action when I ask if they can "open a window". Skeomorphism can be confusing.
What possible motivation would they have to learn more? Okay, they might use a computer in their job - but inefficiency there is often their employer's problem, and considering you can't run arbitrary code on most companies systems (their IT policy generally excludes this) they benefit nothing from learning a programming language.
What does that leave them with? A games machine perhaps, a glorified typewriter with some telecoms capabilities to all intents and purposes.
The concept of computers as a general tool simply does not exist to many people. Consequently it's little wonder that they know next to nothing about them.
Our recently created business targets relatively older users, so we had to make adjustment for knowledge levels similar to what this article mentions.
Favorite quote from article, "This fix was easy: switch to Chrome (remove 5 different search toolbars!) and voila, baby and cat photos and Bubble Safari all working as intended."
Thanks Mark Zuckerberg!
In a car the things you HAVE to understand are the shifter, (P/D/N), the interplay between gas/brake/coasting (which is more complex than it sounds; just ask any new driver), the array of necessary controls for auxiliary devices (headlights, windshield wipers, side-view mirror controls, etc). EDIT: forgot the emergency brake, and all the rules/mechanics of the road (stop signs, parking on a hill, left turns, right turns, etc etc etc etc)
For a computer, for most people's day-to-day usage, the only things you really need to understand are: logging in to the computer, the browser, Google, and the URL bar (technically optional, as many people use Google directly for everything). I understand that, complexity-wise, each of these don't match up one-to-one with the car example, but the fact remains that with very little effort, and almost no "under-the-hood" understanding, you can become what passes for "savvy" these days.
Anecdotally, my dad has always been extremely non-tech-savvy; He had _years_ of being set in his cargo cult usage of his computer (in which he didn't really distinguish between having a browser open and being on his att yahoo homepage, having a window minimized and having it closed, logging into yahoo and logging into the computer, etc). I was able to explain to him the 3 or 4 pieces that fit together using a simple example (e.g. "websites are places you go, the browser is the vehicle that gets you there", etc). He still doesn't necessarily understand anything even marginally under-the-hood; But he understands the operation of a computer (for his purposes) pretty solidly, and no longer has the issue of being helpless when the situation he encounters deviates slightly from what he's used to (i.e. opening the browser and not being logged in to yahoo, for whatever reason).
If a new computer required mandatory training and a license to operate, these issues wouldn't be nearly as common. Besides, how many people are absolutely flummoxed by a manual transmission?
"What browser do you use?" "I don't use a browser, I use the internet"
I then know exactly what the problem is.