Blaming the User


Most software is used in a business context, so most victims of bad interaction are paid for their suffering. Their job forces them to use software, so they cannot choose not to use it they can only tolerate it as well as they can. They are forced to submerge their frustration and to ignore the embarrassment they feel when the software makes them feel stupid.

graphics/02inf06.gif


For years, I've watched as dozens of software-industry executives have drawn on their whiteboards for me essentially the same diagram showing their view of the high-tech marketplace. It shows a pyramid some draw it inverted that is divided into three horizontal layers, each with an innocent-sounding phrase as a label. Each executive superimposes an amorphous blob on it showing the portion of the market they are aiming to conquer. But each label is a euphemism really a veiled slur, like a code phrase you'd hear a bigot use to keep someone out of the country club. The three euphemisms are "naïve user," "computer-literate user," and "power user."

"Naïve user" is industry code for "stupid, incompetent user." And certainly these people are made to feel stupid, but they are not. It is the bad design of the interaction that is at fault. The apologists in the computer industry dismiss naïve users as insignificant, but that flies in the face of good sense. Why would a vendor write off the lion's share of the market? Because it removes the blame for failure from the executives and software engineers and places it squarely onto the shoulders of the innocent users.

The phrase "computer-literate user" really means the person has been hurt so many times that the scar tissue is thick enough that he no longer feels the pain. Computer literacy means that when your program loses your document, you have learned enough not to panic like Jane in Chapter 1, "Riddles for the Information Age," but to begin the slow, manual, utterly unnecessary search for it in the hierarchical file system without complaint. One characteristic of computer literacy is that it is like anesthesia: The patient drifts slowly and gently into unconsciousness. There is little point in constantly whining and complaining about a piece of software that is a fixed and permanent part of your job. Most people don't even realize how hard they are working to compensate for the shortcomings of a software-based tool.

Most apologists consider computer literacy to be a badge of accomplishment, like a Sharpshooter's Medal. Actually, it is more akin to a Purple Heart, an official recognition of having suffered a wound in battle.

graphics/02inf07.gif

Power users are simply apologists. They are techno-enthusiasts who have sufficiently overcome their better instincts to be useful consumers of high-cognitive-friction products. They take pride in the challenge, as they might in the challenge of scaling a rock wall in Yosemite.



Inmates Are Running the Asylum, The. Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy &How to Restore the Sanity - 2004 publication
ISBN: B0036HJY9M
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 170

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net