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“What’s a Browser?” – Remembering the Non-Tech-Savvy User

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Re: “What’s a Browser?” – Remembering the Non-Tech-Savvy User

#2

Post by michaelfeathers »

In the glory days of AOL I ran into non-tech savvy users who thought that it was the internet. I was met with blank stares when I opened another IE instance.

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.

Re: “What’s a Browser?” – Remembering the Non-Tech-Savvy User

#3

Post by 83457 »

michaelfeathers wrote: post #2

In the glory days of AOL I ran into non-tech savvy users who thought that it was the internet. I was met with blank stares when I opened another IE instance. 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 c…

To be fair, initially it was a portal to itself. As in AOL did not original provide internet access, heck it was pre-www days. When they added it making it part of the existing portal interface was logical for various reasons including reducing customer service. But yeah, they also wanted people to use their content over internet sources.

Re: “What’s a Browser?” – Remembering the Non-Tech-Savvy User

#5

Post by michaelfeathers »

83457 wrote: post #3
michaelfeathers wrote: post #2

In the glory days of AOL I ran into non-tech savvy users who thought that it was the internet. I was met with blank stares when I opened another IE instance. 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 c…

To be fair, initially it was a portal to itself. As in AOL did not original provide internet access, heck it was pre-www days. When they added it making it part of the existing portal interface was logical for various reasons including reducing customer service. But yeah, they also wanted people to use their content over internet sources.

Thanks. I forgot all about that. What it became makes a lot of sense in that light.

Re: “What’s a Browser?” – Remembering the Non-Tech-Savvy User

#7

Post by ahoy »

kaoD wrote: post #4

Related: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ Asking passersby in Times Square what is a browser.

What's most interesting about this, I think, is people's unwillingness to admit they don't know something. No one wants to look stupid, or ignorant, or uneducated, even in front of complete strangers. I'm certainly guilty of this, I suspect most of us are.

Re: “What’s a Browser?” – Remembering the Non-Tech-Savvy User

#8

Post by M4v3R »

> I got her to show me how she used the computer; she got into Facebook by typing Facebook into Bing and clicking on the search result.

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.

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