The Plight of the Average User

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To an extent, you've echoed what Steve Krug said in "Don't Make Me Think" back in 2000. People don't want to *understand* it. They want to *use* it. Anything that makes them stop and think is something likely to make them just stop.

Whether it's web site usability, application usability, or OS usability, it all boils down to a good UI. UI's are still more art than science and even Apple's much vaunted HID (Human Interface Design) principles tend to force you to do things the way they want than make things simple.

Take for example how easy it is to re-size a window from just about any corner or border in Windows or certain Linux window managers, but in OS X you can only do it from the lower right corner.

Look at how Quicktime for Mac always starts AT TOP VOLUME and there's no way to change that, even though people have been complaining about it for years.

I'm not trying to start an Apple bashing fest. I'm just showing that even the company that is most celebrated for its UI misses the boat occasionally (and then it's fans claim you're just too stupid to understand why it doesn't want to be on the boat).

And even in Linux you still have the battle going on between KDE and Gnome.

I don't think there is an "average user". I think there are niches within which we can find averages.

This reminds me of two things:
1. In calculus class, two engineering major constantly interrupting our understanding of the essential theory which made it all work so wonderfully with their incessant "What's it good for?" queries. Is it any wonder constructs topple when the builders won't learn the constraints?
2. Trying to convince a programmer that using libraries is not simply avoiding "re-inventing the wheel", it is more "missing other's mistakes".
These are merely indicators of a prevalent disease in our culture - the avoidance of knowledge. Thanks for not being infected!

Leo,

You nailed it!! Great article. Over and over, I hear the same comment: 'Don't tell me HOW it works, just fix it so it works!!' I try to educate my friends and family so they can fix it themselves. Never happens. No curiosity about the single most expensive appliance (excluding HD TVs) they own. Always surprises me. Thanks for the thoughtful analysis of 'why' people are that way.
BEST
Jack

I completely agree. Tunnel vision also explains why most documentation isn't worth the electrons used to display it.

Just to echo what Jack and Michael have said. I fix computers for people all the time, often repairing the same machines over and over which have become unusable because the owners will not listen to any advice you may give them.Some people expect a PC to be like a TV - just switch it on and it works, but are not interested in learning anything about how to look after it!

A computer IS just a tool, just like my car is a tool. I do not need to know anything about my car, other than how to turn it on and off, and when to have maintenance done, to keep it working for years. Is this too much to expect from a computer? All programmers suffer from the "everybody knows that" syndrome, so info that everyone needs to know is never explained anywhere.

Begaining in the year 2000 I started learning and "helping" users on Expert-Exchange help site.
I found out that people want "steps" to solve their problems.

Good description/explanation of a persistent and long-lived situation. With half of an engineering degree and all of a journalism degree, I started deciphering the ramblings of our engineering staff at a large, midwest company getting into the beginnings of the electronics industry in the late 60's. We had process control computers, electronic components, test equipment and silicon. The general feeling was "if the customer isn't interested enough to learn how to use our product, too bad!"
Luckily, some enlightened managers were brought in from the consumers "electronics" market who understood that it was our job to make the equipment intuitive and the IOM (Installation, Operation and Maintenance) manuals readable and instructive.
My latest experience was to click on the Help link in new software, told to consult the manual, which in turn told me to consult the Help link.
Thanks for the continuing information and sense of humor.

If you don't know how something works - DON'T TOUCH IT UNTIL YOU DO!!

I am a confessed "average user" and I further confess that I do not know what that means for others just for myself. I do admit to a general lack of inquisitiveness where the inner working of computers is concerned. I "do" want steps for the mitigation of "problems" even if they are self-induced.
For those of you in the know about all things IT your starting point about us average users should be the realization that it is through "steps" that we learn. Nothing else will suffice.
It is the nature of this industry to change rapidly and by the time most of have learned the steps......they all have changed and the process begins anew.
If as an IT person you are not involved in the industry for profit then you can afford to have cognitive dissonance about us "average users", however, if profit is a consideration....at your peril you forget......THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS CORRECT!

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