| Weblog: | The interface of the future | |
| Subject: | Newbie Assistants and assistance | |
| Date: | 2004-03-31 08:54:48 | |
| From: | lazylion | |
|
What you suggest has been tried with mixed results. My experience, both as a developer (on the Mac since 1987) and a teacher was that the more questions asked by the computer, the worse the experience is for the new user. They don't know if they want to try listening to music first; most often, they already have something in mind (for which they purchased their new Macintosh) and it only gets in the way to ask more "do you want to go here?" type questions. Of course, you could ask on the screen and make it very small and ask lots of such questions; this is exactly what happens when you first launch Safari and are taken to an apple customized internet portal. I always hate those things because they're so cluttered I can't find anything.
|
||
Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.
-
Newbie Assistants and assistance
2004-03-31 10:20:15 FJ de Kermadec |
[Reply | View]
Hi !
Thanks for taking the time to send me your comments, I always enjoy reading feedback ! :-)
F.J. -
Re: Newbie Assistants and assistance
2004-04-02 17:59:38 sjk [Reply | View]
Thanks for the article. This is an interesting topic.
One of the challenges is capturing and holding people's attention long enough for them to learn something. Many people are impatient and (somehow) figure out just enough to get by and that's as far as they'll ever go, even when it's "crippling" them. I was quite surprised when I discovered a friend who's been using Macs for over ten years was totally unaware of control-click contextual menus, some which were exactly what she needed for functionality she'd long wanted in certain apps. Of course there's no set of "minimal basic requirements" for computer usage.
Something else that's noticeably lacking is education/training within a larger context of usability, e.g. Internet services. Yesterday I wrote this on some forum:
I'm not sure it's computer expertise per se that's lacking or what's necessary. When considering factors contributing to various e-mail related problems (some significant, like spam and viruses) on the 'net today aren't people who just "don't know better" and are unaware of negative consequences of their actions sharing some level of responsibility? Ignorance surely seems an inadequate excuse or defense. Hmm, maybe that sounds like I'm making innocent victims guilty. It's more like wondering how to help people help themselves so they avoid being victims at all.
That was related to thoughts I've had about how to integrate "newbie assistants/assistance" in webmail, for example.
So should we be thinking more seriously about "smart software" that assists with education/training for issues like that? Just distributing information about them doesn't seem to be enough to get people to take notice and respond. But you don't want to be intrusive either. Hmm... how might things be if spam were actually a *positive* information distribution resource? :-)
| Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4. |
Ah, remember those well. Must've been System 7 or thereabouts. They were great: simple, straightforward and utterly unpretentious, not assuming any prior knowledge on the part of the user. A very simple solution that did the job.
Unfortunately, they got the boot at some point (OS8?). Perhaps they just weren't fancy or complicated or glamorous enough any more? Or perhaps seen as an admission of weakness; after all, if this stuff actually needs explained to users then it can't be quite as super-easy as Marketing would like to make out.
I mean, if a smark cookie like Jimmy Doohan could get it so wrong in Star Trek IV, how on earth d'they expect my poor old mum to manage?
Ironically, given the power of modern machines - full-screen video, remoting/IPC and gobs and gobs of disk space - companies like Apple and MS could easily bundle first-class introductions and tutorials to their OSes and software with every machine. Less arrogance, snobbery and elitism in software; less emphasis on bells and whistles; more focus on helping the user with their current needs, and showing them all that the existing technology can provide.