Archive of April 2009
It's not you, it's me.
My dad emailed me recently to ask if I could help him sign up for a frequent flyer program online. He’s pretty web-savvy, but he wasn’t able to complete the registration, blaming himself for a lack of computer knowledge.
This is madness! It’s not my dad’s fault he couldn’t fill out the form; it’s the airline’s! Yet somehow we’ve created a culture where users blame themselves for the poor usability of products and websites. This must change.
Relatively speaking, I think we’re still in a nascent stage of computing, where people are often led to think that if they have a problem with a computer, it’s their own fault/ignorance/etc. But really, it’s a little like ‘do-it-yourself’ technology right now. It’s as if, in order to drive a car, we’re expected to know how to adjust a timing belt. But we shouldn’t have to worry about adjusting the timing belt — we just want to drive!
When cars break down unexpectedly, people blame the mechanics and carmakers, and (generally) rightfully so. They should do the same when software or a website fails them. The onus is on us, the technologists, not on them.
01:32 PM