Lan Barnes wrote:
On Wed, May 25, 2005 at 09:54:37AM -0500, JD Runyan wrote:
Todd Walton wrote:
On 5/24/05, Stewart Stremler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
What's this obsession with global menus?
Okay. Then, no menus? Icons to launch a given set of applications,
and the rest from some sort of command line? Would you give this to
your one-button Mom?
-todd
My mom isn't so dumb. She uses an oven with knobs and buttons. She uses
a calculator that changes behavior at the flip of a switch, and she
drives two different cars that have different radio controls and. I
think that she can also figure out differences in computers. It is the
55 and older crowd who seem to get confused. My mom falls just under
this, and my Dad just above it. We are not going to change the world by
converting them. The ones who already use computers regularly could be
converted, the others don't care. If you want to change a view or
attitude in society, then you must change the hearts and minds of the young.
While I agree with most of what you say, I would like to add this from
my experience. I sometimes supply old refurbs running FC3 to seniors.
The boxen are strictly for light word processing and web browsing plus
email. I boot them into X, give them rudimentary instruction in the
interface and their apps, and let 'em go. We're talking people 75 - 85
here (hmm ... not sounding all too far away, alas).
Here's my experience. Some get it, and rather quickly. Some don't, and I
don't hold out much hope.
A computer is a unique machine to operate in many ways. When you drive a
car, you don't need to understand thermodynamics, metallurgy, or simple
physics (beyond the intuitive physics we all learn by dropping banana
slices from our high chairs). But you do need a clear view of the road.
To operate a computer, you need a mental image of the road, too. You'll
never make it work until you understand where your computer is on the
web, what your dial-up connection does (interestingly, most seniors have
cable TV, DVD players, etc, but they see the extra expense of a cable
internet connection as exorbitant and unnecessary -- go figure!), etc.
The people I'm describing who don't get it can't understand concepts
like saving files.
I draw pictures. We talk. If I see the lights go on, I know they'll be
OK. If I see blank acceptance or stubborn confusion, I know they don't
see the road they're planning to travel, and they will do bizarre and
unpredictable things and eventually abandon the computer as "too hard."
I don't think it's intelligence, and I don't think it's age. I'm not
sure, really, what it is. We're all good at something and we're all bad
at something (I'm musically hopeless, which is funny, because I _like_
music).
This isn't the first human endeavor that has required the ability to
trace events not seen (I mean real events, not theology). Auto
mechanics, internists, electronic engineers have always had to have
X-ray vision in their fields. But this may be the first time appliance
end users have ever been asked to steer their possessions down roads
that exist just in their minds.
Very well said, Lan. It's not intelligence, but maybe abstract thinking
? Not making it harder than it needs to be ? We have a family friend
who is a brilliant linguist, speaks German, English, Hopi (At which he
is a world-class expert). He cannot seem to grasp the difference
between the A: and the C: drive. My Dad has tried all sorts of
analogies, visual metaphor, literal explanation, etc. Nothing seems to
stick.
It's the classic Slashbot outrage - "I wouldn't trust a surgeon who
couldn't save a file to a floppy !" Well, I wouldn't trust the Slashbot
to cut me open.
I had a CAD/GIS person at work ask me where his files are on the disk.
Saying that they are stored as patterns of magnetism didn't work for
him. He wanted to SEE it ...
I do end-user computer support, so I need to understand how the users
conceive of this stuff. It's a fascinating subject
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