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In general I hate arguments that includes the grannies and grandpas of our world. First of all because it makes the assumption that all of them are stupid some

In general I hate arguments that includes the grannies and grandpas of our world. First of all because it makes the assumption that all of them are stupid somehow - or for the less adaptable ones that have problems with newer technology, it makes the assumption that the current status quo works. Do you think that granny from your example wouldn't click "Ignore" on a browser warning? Second of all, if we really get down to an argument about elders, society and making the world a better place, the priority shouldn't be to keep the status quo because the elders wouldn't cope with change - because in that equation, today's children are more important, don't you think? > Have fun explaining to her that she needs to exchange keys with enough trusted intermediaries to have a valid trust path to her bank That's false - she only needs to exchange keys with the bank directly.

dredmorbius 13y ago
I hate arguments that includes the grannies The point isn't the slur on elderly users (though that often applies), but to think of the least-technical, large-base user likely to be trying to make use of your product. In my experience, I've encountered technically challenged users of all stripes: the illiterate, PhDs, strangers on the Internet, immediate family and friends, children, the elderly, mentally or psychologically challenged, executives (but I repeat myself), entrepreneurs, the harried, etc. And, put quite bluntly, there's a hell of a lot of them. Within the tech world we tend to be fairly insulated from the larger scope of this problem, and yet in my experience it's still ubiquitous. The point of the example isn't to take affront, but to realize that for widely-deployed systems, base-level usability is crucially important.
poolpool 13y ago
Its not that they are stupid, many people have better things to do than spend a single second they don't have to staring at a monitor. Different interests. Different focuses. No one will want to listen to you explain that its for the best, or the current issues with CAs (Also what a CA is). They just want to check their damn gmail.

dredmorbius 13y ago

I hate arguments that includes the grannies The point isn't the slur on elderly users (though that often applies), but to think of the least-technical, large-base user likely to be trying to make use of your product. In my experience, I've encountered technically challenged users of all stripes: the illiterate, PhDs, strangers on the Internet, immediate family and friends, children, the elderly, mentally or psychologically challenged, executives (but I repeat myself), entrepreneurs, the harried, etc. And, put quite bluntly, there's a hell of a lot of them. Within the tech world we tend to be fairly insulated from the larger scope of this problem, and yet in my experience it's still ubiquitous. The point of the example isn't to take affront, but to realize that for widely-deployed systems, base-level usability is crucially important.

poolpool 13y ago

Its not that they are stupid, many people have better things to do than spend a single second they don't have to staring at a monitor. Different interests. Different focuses. No one will want to listen to you explain that its for the best, or the current issues with CAs (Also what a CA is). They just want to check their damn gmail.