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

spin.atomicobject.com

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

#11

Post by rartichoke »

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…

I still have a client who is like this now. He still goes through AOL and thinks it's the internet.

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.

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

#12

Post by ucarion »

I imagine most fields have a lot of jargon too; it's just that technology is one of the few areas that has become essentially ubiquitous, so we notice the difference between technology-savvy and non-technology-savvy more often.

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.

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

#13

Post by skellystudios »

Having done loads of tech support for old people, I've really got used to being sensitive about the terminology I used - and their 'alternative' terms.

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.

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

#15

Post by jgranby »

pauletienney wrote: post #6

Remembering ? Those people are the huge majority.

'Remembering' as in 'bearing in mind' rather than 'looking back nostalgically' (i.e. as in 'remember to look both ways before you cross the road'). My first instinct on seeing the title was the same as yours.

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

#16

Post by yoshokatana »

skellystudios wrote: post #13

Having done loads of tech support for old people, I've really got used to being sensitive about the terminology I used - and their 'alternative' terms. 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…

A direct quote from my time at the Kodak call center, after pointing out how to navigate to Control Panel (via the start menu): "Start? My computer's already on!"

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

#17

Post by MarcScott »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #14

Here's the kicker: most of these non-tech-savvy users are not the older generation. 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.

As a teacher of Computing, I couldn't agree more. I've blogged about it here http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-co... Habits I see daily include: typing domain names into search bars, using Caps Lock to type a single uppercase letter, holding down off buttons to 'shutdown' a computer, using passwords like asdfg1234.

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

#18

Post by codva »

Back in 1996 I had a side gig teaching Internet 101 to people who generally had just bought their first computer at WalMart and were afraid to open the box. Every class the first mention of "mouse" caused a few hands to go up and ask what a mouse was. Most of them had the mouse in their other hand at the time. We used Yahoo for search, and Alta Vista for the 'Advanced Search Strategies" class.

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

#19

Post by cosmie »

M4v3R wrote: post #8

> 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 letter…

The problem is you have to know that behavior exists. Many of the users that "search to site" will still type Google into the omnibox, and complete the process as they always have (by searching Google for Facebook and clicking the link).
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