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Something I observe with people new to computing at an old age: They try to reduce any task to "below level 1", aiming at writing this down as a sequence of ato

Something I observe with people new to computing at an old age: They try to reduce any task to "below level 1", aiming at writing this down as a sequence of atomic steps of a recipe. There is no confidence in being able to remember how a task is to be achieved at any future point. There is also no confidence and therefor no interest in acquiring the basic grammar of user interfaces. (E.g., double-clicking is not linked to a general operation of opening something represented by an icon, but just another step in a list of how to conjure a certain view onto the screen, identify an "image" and then double clicking it.) – The real problem is the lack of confidence and therefor a lack of any further interest in learning and an anxiety regarding exploring. BTW, all members of my small (and anecdotical) sample are academics, who formerly held managerial or teaching positions. (Most of them also had some introduction to computers decades ago, but never used this in real life, thus never developing a practical skill.) Now compare this to smartphone UIs based on swiping and hidden functionality. There's no chance. Edit: Also 2FA, which requires complex interoperation on two different devices using dissimilar metaphors, each involving complex operations on their own. This is totally inaccessible.

everdrive 5y ago
This was my experience for years when I worked in tech support. It seemed like every computer task was just a list of steps. They had to ask "do I left-click, or right-click" on every step, because they had developed no "theory" for what a left-click is, and why you'd use it vs. a right-click. It seemed like if they ever missed a step, or a step required them to deviate from their plan, they were entirely lost. I haven't done tech support for years (last was in ~2008) so I don't know if people are generally more savvy or not. I also want to be clear: I'm not mocking anyone for lack of knowledge here. There is a huge population of people who cannot use computers properly. I don't believe that the solution is "make computers easier for people." I believe the solution is: customer service reps, paper billing, and other non-computer alternatives must be available for any service which is even remotely-important.
- masswerk 5y ago
  > I also want to be clear: I'm not mocking anyone for lack of knowledge here. One of the persons in my sample is my father. He had an introduction to what must have been OS/2 Warp and even had a computer in the office, but never used it (there was still a secretary). In his retirement, he bought a book binder course on how to use an early version of Windows, but hadn't a computer to try it on his own, so this was yet again theoretical and mostly forgotten. At around 80, he finally acquired a laptop, but 10 years later he's essentially at the level described above. (Windows nowadays changing some of its metaphors on a regular basis, doesn't help.) On the other hand, at the age of 90, he's still able to adopt to the interface of a new camera. Partly, because camera UIs tend to be designed more on the principle of providing the least of an interference and mental load as possible, but also because he loves photography. It is important to note that computing isn't a prime occupation for this generation: Yes, it's something they could do, yes, there may be interesting things, they try to participate, but overall, they can do without it and discovery is difficult, therefor, there's never an ultimate urge to adopt. Conversely, they are reduced to the most basic skill level, which doesn't especially promote interest, which in turn hinders progress. You could say, computers are inverse gamification devices for them. This is something to keep in mind, when designing accessible operations. Edit: Adding alleged ease-of-access layers doesn't help. E.g., as may be inferred from the above, archiving and reviewing photos is a favorite occupation on the computer. Transferring and navigating stored photos is complex in its own and eventually mastered to a certain degree. (Still, I keep fixing the same míshaps.) However, adding layers like camera roll, moments or automatic links in the favorites bar, which eventually obscure the custom links placed for ease of access, doesn't help at all. On the contrary, it's just an opaque distraction and obstruction, which will be ignored at best, but will add to the confusion at least, because of their inherent time-based instability in what is supposed to be a stable layer of access. (Also, the "magical" appearance and disappearance of these items doesn't help the ability to form a stable mental model.) Don't do this, provide functionality like this as an option only. (Or, at least, have options to disable this.)
  - brimble 5y ago
    > Also, the "magical" appearance and disappearance of these items doesn't help the ability to form a stable mental model. I've observed that any kind of "mode" that isn't extremely clear, visually is terrible for these sorts of folks (and, as with most things that give them trouble, are really terrible for everyone, we're just better at working past it than they are). Tabs that aren't extremely visually clear will leave these users "stuck" on the wrong one without realizing there even are tabs; filters or searches that don't make it super clear that you're "in" a filter or search will make them wonder where the hell all their stuff went, that kind of thing.
brimble 5y ago
Unpredictability and inconsistency of behavior are so bad for people in that group (and, really, everyone, they just can't work past it like a fraction of more talented computer-users can). If opening something or performing an action ever doesn't do the thing it usually does—say, it presents some kind of modal or notice instead, as many programs do after updates or for other reasons—it'll completely derail them.
masswerk 5y ago
Regarding things like 2FA: This is also a matter of what might be reasonable to one group isn't necessarily reasonable to another group. Let's imagine this the other way round: let's say, Apple were to install a set of different colored hand cranks in front of each house, requiring users to crank a specific set of them to initiate certain interactions. While someone who was once accustomed to fetch water from a hand pump at the back of the house may adopt easily to such a scheme, you would probably be like, "scr$w you, let's go back to 1990s pagers, it's mostly about insert-preferred-messaging-app-of-the-season anyway." You wouldn't even try to memorize these cranking schemes (and ADHD may not help particularly in doing so).

everdrive 5y ago

This was my experience for years when I worked in tech support. It seemed like every computer task was just a list of steps. They had to ask "do I left-click, or right-click" on every step, because they had developed no "theory" for what a left-click is, and why you'd use it vs. a right-click. It seemed like if they ever missed a step, or a step required them to deviate from their plan, they were entirely lost. I haven't done tech support for years (last was in ~2008) so I don't know if people are generally more savvy or not. I also want to be clear: I'm not mocking anyone for lack of knowledge here. There is a huge population of people who cannot use computers properly. I don't believe that the solution is "make computers easier for people." I believe the solution is: customer service reps, paper billing, and other non-computer alternatives must be available for any service which is even remotely-important.

masswerk 5y ago
> I also want to be clear: I'm not mocking anyone for lack of knowledge here. One of the persons in my sample is my father. He had an introduction to what must have been OS/2 Warp and even had a computer in the office, but never used it (there was still a secretary). In his retirement, he bought a book binder course on how to use an early version of Windows, but hadn't a computer to try it on his own, so this was yet again theoretical and mostly forgotten. At around 80, he finally acquired a laptop, but 10 years later he's essentially at the level described above. (Windows nowadays changing some of its metaphors on a regular basis, doesn't help.) On the other hand, at the age of 90, he's still able to adopt to the interface of a new camera. Partly, because camera UIs tend to be designed more on the principle of providing the least of an interference and mental load as possible, but also because he loves photography. It is important to note that computing isn't a prime occupation for this generation: Yes, it's something they could do, yes, there may be interesting things, they try to participate, but overall, they can do without it and discovery is difficult, therefor, there's never an ultimate urge to adopt. Conversely, they are reduced to the most basic skill level, which doesn't especially promote interest, which in turn hinders progress. You could say, computers are inverse gamification devices for them. This is something to keep in mind, when designing accessible operations. Edit: Adding alleged ease-of-access layers doesn't help. E.g., as may be inferred from the above, archiving and reviewing photos is a favorite occupation on the computer. Transferring and navigating stored photos is complex in its own and eventually mastered to a certain degree. (Still, I keep fixing the same míshaps.) However, adding layers like camera roll, moments or automatic links in the favorites bar, which eventually obscure the custom links placed for ease of access, doesn't help at all. On the contrary, it's just an opaque distraction and obstruction, which will be ignored at best, but will add to the confusion at least, because of their inherent time-based instability in what is supposed to be a stable layer of access. (Also, the "magical" appearance and disappearance of these items doesn't help the ability to form a stable mental model.) Don't do this, provide functionality like this as an option only. (Or, at least, have options to disable this.)
- brimble 5y ago
  > Also, the "magical" appearance and disappearance of these items doesn't help the ability to form a stable mental model. I've observed that any kind of "mode" that isn't extremely clear, visually is terrible for these sorts of folks (and, as with most things that give them trouble, are really terrible for everyone, we're just better at working past it than they are). Tabs that aren't extremely visually clear will leave these users "stuck" on the wrong one without realizing there even are tabs; filters or searches that don't make it super clear that you're "in" a filter or search will make them wonder where the hell all their stuff went, that kind of thing.

brimble 5y ago

Unpredictability and inconsistency of behavior are so bad for people in that group (and, really, everyone, they just can't work past it like a fraction of more talented computer-users can). If opening something or performing an action ever doesn't do the thing it usually does—say, it presents some kind of modal or notice instead, as many programs do after updates or for other reasons—it'll completely derail them.

masswerk 5y ago

Regarding things like 2FA: This is also a matter of what might be reasonable to one group isn't necessarily reasonable to another group. Let's imagine this the other way round: let's say, Apple were to install a set of different colored hand cranks in front of each house, requiring users to crank a specific set of them to initiate certain interactions. While someone who was once accustomed to fetch water from a hand pump at the back of the house may adopt easily to such a scheme, you would probably be like, "scr$w you, let's go back to 1990s pagers, it's mostly about insert-preferred-messaging-app-of-the-season anyway." You wouldn't even try to memorize these cranking schemes (and ADHD may not help particularly in doing so).