Technical Difficulties
Another call from the parents, wanting to get something working correctly on their computer.
You’d think we’d be past this… but we aren’t. That’s the problem with technology today. We are SO close to having things “just work”. In fact, I’ll admit, Apple is closer. The problem is, we aren’t there yet, even for the mac.
My parents are smart people. They don’t understand computers, but they are smart people. In fact, my father is one of the most intelligent people I know. He has a mechanical mind like none other. Once we start talking how to use the computer though, things get increasingly difficult. I wish I didn’t have such a short fuse, but I get frustrated easily with technical questions. Sorry guys. The problem still remains, when things get plugged in, and installed… they don’t always just work.
The reality is, will we ever get there? Sure, things are more and more user friendly, but sometimes the learning curve is just going to be difficult. Trying to explain how to get video conferencing is hard when the person who is being told is miles away and doesn’t understand why the computer needs to reboot to recognize the drivers, or where the unmute settings are.
This isn’t meant to be a rant - wait - I guess it is, but as software developers we always need to strive to make things “just work”. A lot of times, this isn’t the focus. Sometimes hardware is the limitation. Sometimes software is. Sometimes the focus is quick development, and not quick learning curve. Sometimes we just specify a “requirement” on the system to avoid something that will cause the program to break. Although, every day we get closer!
What I worry about is that more and more, I need to explain to many of my students that things are “magic” and it just works. This is great - but it’s also scary. We need to be able to develop things that “just work”, but at the same time have a very clear and logical paradigm that is associated with them, so they can be understood. I don’t know how to solve this problem. Hell, I can barely think of examples. But, it’s been a month since I’ve written and I figured I’d say something.
Perhaps a few more days in the oven and this thought will be a little more cooked.
I think the main issue comes down to trust and focus. Some people will click on ANYTHING and agree to ANYTHING because they don’t want to be looking at something they don’t understand. We, as ‘professionals’, are forced to know this stuff, so we actually take 30 seconds to focus and ask ourselves “ok, is this a good idea? Do I trust this website/application? How does this device work?”
If someone were to sit you down in front of a news article or a book you have no interest in, are you really going to work that hard to absorb all that info? Or are you going to skim it and hope whoever forced you to read it isn’t going to grill you on it later?
That’s why anyone with enough motivation and 5 minutes can learn to program their VCR. Or learn how to bake cookies. It’s all about how relevant that action is to your daily life, and how motivated you are to absorb that information.
As a designer, I feel it’s my responsibility to take whatever motivation they have and make their task as simple and intuitive as possible. The trick is making them feel EMPOWERED about an interaction, instead of befuddled. It’s why feedback is so important. Otherwise, they’ll go away and call you. And clearly, no one wants that ;)
Closing thought: I should really start a blog to write this stuff down, damn.
When teachers tell us something is done because of “magic,” we’ll never know the real logic behind it. Then those students become teachers and the cycle continues breeding.
I think developers naturally want to get to that point of making things “just work” and not go further because it’s such a stride to get to even that point sometimes. With time and money constraints, it’s tough to crank out something that is of highest quality. “Better, faster, cheaper — pick 2.”
oops…my use of “just work” above is meant in the sense that sometimes we do less than what the user expects to simply get it to work, which is usually not intuitive for the user.