I am "Tech Support" for a half a dozen different folks (In quotes because my minions think my knowledge is vast and magical, it is neither)
Based on feedback I am guessing a fair number of you dear readers do the same for folks in your lives. It is astounding to me how difficult it all is. I mean here we are, 30 years, into the personal computing revolution (whatever that is) and computers are still so hard to use for so many people that much of the time they just give up.
The irony is that despite huge advances in hardware and software in terms of capacity, speed and cost (faster, better, cheaper) it is often times more difficult to do things today than it was 25 years ago.
My Buddy Andrew is a writer. He is old enough to know better but young enough to still try new things. I work with him about an hour a month just finding documents, reseting menus adding subversive links to his browser window. Heres a question, WHY after 25-30 years of producing Word does Microsoft lose "Normal" and replace it with "Draft". Even if it is more "Correct" Don't you think that after 25 years folks had likely adapted?
If there were a way to have one computer, that you could use forever, that would be cool. Because whatever the failings of the machine you would have long ago adapted to the particular way it wants to do things. Even if it were just metaphorically, you could work in OSX with Word with a 1983 Wordperfect menu system...Cool.
How many people do you know use style sheets? (2 and you don't like them) Use Excel for everything from lists to letters? (oh my god half the office?) Use keyboard shortcuts? Backup?
The really funny thing is that we are willing to tolerate old things that work in proprietary products. For Example HP has been selling the HP-12c financial calculator since 1981. It still sells well for 70 bucks a pop and likely costs about 3 bucks to make.
I guess what I am saying is that however far we have come. And it does seem like a ways. Is NOTHING compared to where we are going. Good Design is astoundingly difficult. Someday tech will progress to the point where things really are "easy" to use for everyone. But that day is a long way off.
5 comments:
You wrote: Good Design is astoundingly difficult.
Respectfully, I disagree. If developers think "good design" from the beginning of designing software through its development to the end, good design is incredibly easy. It is built into everything that is done.
But as you've learned, Microsoft doesn't make software that way.
You are almost correct when you write: 30 years, into the personal computing revolution (whatever that is) and computers are still so hard to use for so many people that much of the time they just give up."
It has not always been that way, nor does it have to be that way. For it isn't that "computers are still so hard to use," it's computers running the Microsoft Windows OS are hard to use.
It is not that "it is often times more difficult to do things today than it was 25 years ago," it is that poorly written applications with unwanted feature bloat and overly complex interfaces--primarily a result of the concepts of design in play at Microsoft--have resulted in making simple things more difficult to do than it was 25 years ago.
Finally, you wrote, "Someday tech will progress to the point where things really are "easy" to use for everyone. But that day is a long way off."
No. It's not. I use a computer where things are really easy to use every day. It has no applications from Microsoft. It's called the Apple Macintosh.
Amen to what Kraig wrote!!! I use Macintosh Computers, iPods, iPhone, MacTV, iTunes, iLife, iWork Airport Express, Time Capsule and a whole slew of other products from Apple. All of these are easy to use!!!
I'm a long time Mac user and agree that, in general, Apple does a significantly better job of creating usable software and devices.
Nevertheless, even Apple can't overcome the fact that the more versatile and flexible you make something, the harder it is to learn and master. Apple's brilliance is due in part to its ruthless decisions regarding which options and features to leave out. It then polishes what's left to gleaming perfection
So while Apple may provide solutions eminently suitable for a large number of users, it most assuredly ignores the needs and desires of a vocal minority with an assortment of specific interests. That is why people are so passionate and polarized about Apple.
Great comments.
I would just add that I am a Mac user, I love my computers and the things they do for me. It is when I stand back and look at the history of technological development combined with the ridiculous amount of support (Non Tech) people need in order to be able to use their machines effectively (Mac or PC). This will get better over time.
It's pretty much the older generation that has problems adapting. The kids I see can use all the tools to make awesome documents and movies. But they use Macs. Check out what Mabry is doing.
http://mabryonline.org/archives/2007/04/2007_film_festi.html
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