Joe knew nothing about computers, so he focused on the only item he recognized: text. Icons, buttons, and interface elements Joe ignored completely Reminds me

Joe knew nothing about computers, so he focused on the only item he recognized: text. Icons, buttons, and interface elements Joe ignored completely Reminds me of my mother. She had a stand-alone word processor back in the day, w/ keyboard, monochrome screen, floppy drive, and daisy wheel. All commands were performed through the keyboard, with prompts on the bottom two lines of the screen, ala emacs. She was real pro w/ this thing. She taught herself how to use it, and never needed any help from me. Fast forward to her first personal computer, w/ mouse and icons, and she didn't get it. 10 years later and she still doesn't get it. In fact, it is a major source of anxiety. She doesn't explore the interface because she might get lost and won't be able find her way back to where she was. What do all those icons do? Who knows. She follows a very narrow course through the 4 or 5 tasks that she's familiar with, and that's it. She's almost superstitious about it. None of this would be terribly remarkable if I didn't know she'd been such an expert user of the old standalone word processor. But she was. And whatever it was about the old machine that worked, it didn't carry over to the new age of mice & GUIs. [for a similar perspective, see the discussion over at metafilter: http://www.metafilter.com/105309/You-have-to-click-on-the-text-box http://www.metafilter.com/105309/You-have-to-click-on-the-te...]