1. Jul 17th, 2008

    Confirmed: I’m an ignorant mainstream user

    I have a confession to make. I’m one of these people.

    Yep. Not ashamed of it either.

    When I use the address bar, sometimes I make mistakes. Sometimes it lands me on one of those pointless ad-filled pages dedicated specifically for us, the misspellers. If you’re a true geek I bet you don’t know they even exist, maybe heard stories. I’ve been to these places, and let me tell you, it ain’t pretty.

    Sometimes I land on a search because I forgot to dot my com. Or just felt lazy, put a word there and let Google figure out. I’m especially bad at remembering things, was it dropbox or getdropbox? basecamp or basecamphq? What was RWW’s URL again? Doesn’t matter, address bar search will take me where I need to go faster than entering the wrong URL.

    I know, there goes my geek cred.

    Now back to pretending I know half a thing about technology. I have a DHCP entry to set so I can VNC into another box on my home network which doesn’t have a static IP address.

    PS On a serious note, what amazes me in all of this is the amount of rationalization of user behavior and motives discussed in the comments, rather than just realizing the modal UI is unnecessary and people just don’t care to use it.

    If it takes more than a decade, and people are still not educated enough to conform to your model, then that’s enough time to take a step back and ask yourself: is the world stupid, or is my model just broken? Most likely, both.

    If you care about the technology — for any reason other than feeling superior compared to the uneducated masses — then go fix the model. That’s what good technologists do.

    Posted by Assaf Filed in general

    1. Jul 17th, 2008

      Marshall Kirkpatrick

      :) good post. It’s RWW btw, not RRW - googling for RRW won’t get you anywhere near where you were today.

    2. Jul 17th, 2008

      Assaf

      Thanks!

      Fixed the typo, and yeah I’m that much of a misspeller.

    3. Jul 17th, 2008

      Marshall Kirkpatrick

      I’m just giving you a hard time. :) you started it.

    4. Jul 17th, 2008

      Assaf

      And I deserve it :-)

    5. Aug 4th, 2008

      Labnotes » Rounded Corners 211 - Geek or fail

      [...] The inherit assumption that the behavior of non-geeks is always sub-optimal strategy resulting from lack of proper education. Or, as we like to call it, “being mainstream”. [...]

    6. Aug 14th, 2008

      Labnotes » Rounded Corners 215 - Preconception

      [...] better stop reading about how elderly people and other mainstream users approach technology, it just feels so depressing. Give me less buttons, I’ll return my geek [...]

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