7 ms·

> Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: Your mom. Here you can hire

by munin 11y ago

> Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: Your mom. Here you can hire someone else’s Mom to torture your website. ugh, vom. can we kill this already? my friends mom has forgotten more about antenna design than I will ever know. my grandmother was doing computer based typesetting since it was possible and remembers when LaTeX was new.

tectonic 11y ago
Thank you!
themodelplumber 11y ago
OP's sample size is just low. My kids' mom happens to be incredibly great at noticing minute details that went wrong in websites. Sometimes a competitor of mine, like a big agency to which I lost a bid, will launch a new site here locally and I'll ask her to let me know what she thinks just so I can gloat. I have worked with other moms who suck at details but do incredible brand strategy, etc. Seriously, if you're not running a study and you need to typologize to _any_ degree, you should at least pick up e.g. MBTI because it is so much further down the road than "moms".
Chris2048 11y ago
n = 1 then?
daveguy 11y ago
Came here to point this out. My mom has a math undergrad and physics masters and was programming path following algorithms for industrial robotics before I was born. This whole "explain it like it's your mom" or "make it so easy your mom could use it" thing is so backwards it's nauseating. Surely we can get past this. If your mom is a UX expert, great. I would like her input and will pay for it. If you are using someone's mom as a sexist gimmick -- go back to the 50's.
pc86 11y ago
Neat. The stereotypical mother has never done antenna design, and I'm willing to bet quite a bit of money most folks' grandparents are not exactly well versed in computer based typesetting.
- wpietri 11y ago
  Yes, and the point is that the stereotype is stupid and demeaning to a lot of people.
  - pc86 11y ago
    If you were to pick an octogenarian at random do you think it's more likely that they have very little experience/comfort with computers, or that they studied it in school and "remember when LaTeX was new"? That has nothing to do with demeaning anyone, and someone doesn't lose their dignity because they haven't been raised on a screen. It's like any time someone mentions something that is statistically the most common scenario people can't wait to come out of the woodwork to exclaim how they had a different experience, so clearly the OP is wrong/mean-spirited/sexist/racist/ageist/whatever rather than just acknowledging they had a different experience. The idea that older people, on average, are less comfortable with technology is not some meme that needs to die. It's a statistical reality.
    - munin 11y ago
      it costs you nothing to say "less sophisticated user" and it captures the full range of your problem. you're not specifically trying to make your website easy for octogenarians to use - you want it to be usable by everyone, with no assumptions. why say something in an exclusive way when you could say it in an inclusive way?
      - pc86 11y ago
        Because context is a thing. Here, I will rewrite the text from the article with your suggestion: > Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: A less sophisticated user. Here you can hire a less sophisticated user to torture your website. Not to mention the fact that the website in question is literally theuserismymom.com.
stephenboyd 11y ago
Where I was an undergrad recently, some of the most respected and knowledgeable CS professors were grandmothers, especially one who worked on Unix at Bell Labs in its heyday. I just can't plausibly use 'grandmas' or 'moms' to represent people ignorant of computing after that experience.

by munin 11y ago

tectonic 11y ago

Thank you!

themodelplumber 11y ago

OP's sample size is just low. My kids' mom happens to be incredibly great at noticing minute details that went wrong in websites. Sometimes a competitor of mine, like a big agency to which I lost a bid, will launch a new site here locally and I'll ask her to let me know what she thinks just so I can gloat. I have worked with other moms who suck at details but do incredible brand strategy, etc. Seriously, if you're not running a study and you need to typologize to _any_ degree, you should at least pick up e.g. MBTI because it is so much further down the road than "moms".

Chris2048 11y ago

n = 1 then?

daveguy 11y ago

Came here to point this out. My mom has a math undergrad and physics masters and was programming path following algorithms for industrial robotics before I was born. This whole "explain it like it's your mom" or "make it so easy your mom could use it" thing is so backwards it's nauseating. Surely we can get past this. If your mom is a UX expert, great. I would like her input and will pay for it. If you are using someone's mom as a sexist gimmick -- go back to the 50's.

pc86 11y ago

Neat. The stereotypical mother has never done antenna design, and I'm willing to bet quite a bit of money most folks' grandparents are not exactly well versed in computer based typesetting.

wpietri 11y ago
Yes, and the point is that the stereotype is stupid and demeaning to a lot of people.
- pc86 11y ago
  If you were to pick an octogenarian at random do you think it's more likely that they have very little experience/comfort with computers, or that they studied it in school and "remember when LaTeX was new"? That has nothing to do with demeaning anyone, and someone doesn't lose their dignity because they haven't been raised on a screen. It's like any time someone mentions something that is statistically the most common scenario people can't wait to come out of the woodwork to exclaim how they had a different experience, so clearly the OP is wrong/mean-spirited/sexist/racist/ageist/whatever rather than just acknowledging they had a different experience. The idea that older people, on average, are less comfortable with technology is not some meme that needs to die. It's a statistical reality.
  - munin 11y ago
    it costs you nothing to say "less sophisticated user" and it captures the full range of your problem. you're not specifically trying to make your website easy for octogenarians to use - you want it to be usable by everyone, with no assumptions. why say something in an exclusive way when you could say it in an inclusive way?
    - pc86 11y ago
      Because context is a thing. Here, I will rewrite the text from the article with your suggestion: > Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: A less sophisticated user. Here you can hire a less sophisticated user to torture your website. Not to mention the fact that the website in question is literally theuserismymom.com.

stephenboyd 11y ago

Where I was an undergrad recently, some of the most respected and knowledgeable CS professors were grandmothers, especially one who worked on Unix at Bell Labs in its heyday. I just can't plausibly use 'grandmas' or 'moms' to represent people ignorant of computing after that experience.