The neighborhood social networking example is not as straight forward as it sounds. The barrier to use isn't just the user experience, but the metaphor behind t

The neighborhood social networking example is not as straight forward as it sounds. The barrier to use isn't just the user experience, but the metaphor behind the application. Most regular people have a hard time learning new metaphors to interact with technology. Do you really think that an entire group of middle-aged moms would all download an app on their smartphones to co-ordinate carpools? No! They don't want to deal with technology. Most likely they will just talk person to person (what a novel idea) or use their existing email list from the team. Don't mean to get too personal, but this kind of thinking is one of the disadvantages from living in Silicon Valley. You become disconnected from how the majority of people live and interact with technology