Infuriating when people can't use simple devices

I work for a software house where 75% of the staff call me or the boss over because they don't know how to use their email account. A SOFTWARE HOUSE!!

As you can see this is rather traumatising for me. Simplifying things is great and it means that they don't need to have the basic background knowledge in order to use it but we're just not at that stage. We're still very much at the stage where 3/4 of the world are looking at the other and asking "Why doesn't magic happen when I push this button and why can't it do everything for me?!?"
 
I find these people seem to think they will break something if they do the smallest thing wrong, like they press one wrong button and the whole thing will explode. I've lost count of the number of times my Nan has rung me to say her mobile has broken, only to go over and find she's just turned the volume down.
 
It was many years before my dad figured out how to pause, play, and rewind the freeview box.

"Its the same buttons you used on the DVD and VHS"
"What buttons?"
"You were a pre-windows computer tech, how on earth does this confuse you?"


Hes better now.
 
Energize said:
Icons instead of words are one of the worst sins a designer can make, because icons are so open to individual interpretation, such designers should be executed.
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That entirely depends on the icons being used and thei context in which they are used.

Some icons are universally recognised and are perfectly appropriate for certain uses.

It's ambiguous icons or inappropriate use of icons that cause confusion.
 
Google products are great examples of incompetence at icon design.

Ccn52xt.png


That's the toolbar in Google Drive. The third button in means 'Move to'. No arrow on it to signify a file or folder moving somehow, just a folder icon. The options to share a file or download it are obviously in the 'More...' drop-down because they are so uncommon.

They also like to change the icons quite a lot, and there never seems to be a moment in time where they are consistent across their products. I think they're the ones to blame for the three horizontal lines apparently meaning 'menu'.
 
What's the average age group of the people you're referring to?

For example, the elderly, they haven't been brought up surrounded by the interfaces and user experiences we take for granted or have been immersed in since childhood/teenage years so it's a lot harder to pick up for first time users.

I found the newest version of the Sky interface a nightmare to get to grips with. Trying to watch catch up proved to be more difficult than I'd imagined. The user experience is awful considering the large demographic.

Oh and chill out :p
 
"Infuriating when people can't use simple devices"

What about this forum under the Windows section with so much whining over no start button and a failure of a OS? even a year later.
 
Caged said:
Google products are great examples of incompetence at icon design.

Ccn52xt.png


That's the toolbar in Google Drive. The third button in means 'Move to'. No arrow on it to signify a file or folder moving somehow, just a folder icon. The options to share a file or download it are obviously in the 'More...' drop-down because they are so uncommon.

They also like to change the icons quite a lot, and there never seems to be a moment in time where they are consistent across their products. I think they're the ones to blame for the three horizontal lines apparently meaning 'menu'.
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I find Google's icons are some of the most user unfriendly going.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rc...Q8oDx4kqQP06VAAa5C6dTdUQ&ust=1384874337588169

I know the magnifying glass is search, I only just about know the 3 circles connected with lines means share, but what the heck do the other 2 icons mean?!
 
Most toddlers are taught very early on how to put a block through a hole of the same shape.

Those that weren't are the people who visit the IT helpdesk to get a USB stick dislodged from a network port, because in their words they 'aren't IT literate'.
 
The best are the ones who claim they don't have time to learn and then spend twice as long doing anything because they're doing it the hard way.

At my old work I often saw people manually adding up numbers to enter into excel. Surely the whole point of a spreadsheet is you don't need to.
 
benjii said:
I have patience for people that are willing to try and learn (like my 80 year old Grandma). It's those that have given up already and spend the whole time being defeatist and hinting that they want you to it for them, those people annoy me!
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OpenToSuggestions said:
My 75 year old Grandma can use Windows XP and email.
I have no idea why people in their 40s cannot use a Skybox.
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+1 to both. My Grandma had an Amstrad-with-a-green-screen jobby for 20 odd years, and she was very used to it. About 10 years ago, she turned 75, like your Grandma, and she moved onto a PC with XP. Bit of a learning curve for her with complete change of OS/platform, but she was keen. With our help, she sussed it, and she can do the normal things like emailing, scanning, printing, online shopping, transferring pictures from camera by herself. She'll occasionally ring me with a tech issue e.g. file format issue, why it won't open in such-and-such program etc. Now she's 85 and she's moved up the various Windows versions, Vista, 7, no probs, got a netbook now too.
 
TheBDog said:
I work for a software house where 75% of the staff call me or the boss over because they don't know how to use their email account. A SOFTWARE HOUSE!!
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Do you use Lotus Notes per chance? By combining an RCP UI that looks like Eclipse, with completely bizzare keyboard shortcuts (F9 to refresh, WTF), it can be confusing to software developers.
 
Blazin23 said:
Like people who can't use self service checkouts in supermarkets :p
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Again, classic bad design.

Try paying cash at one of those things,
OK, where's the cash input? - by the screen, nope, it's over there on the right, below eye level, surrounded by other odd notices and holes.

OK, done, where's my change, right next to where I put the money in?
Don't be stupid, notes come out of another slot further on the right and change comes out by your feet.

OK, goods receipt, does that appear by the screen?
Of course not, it quietly prints out over on the left and drops onto the floor.

Meanwhile the machine is screaming at you to pick up your bags, thanking you for using the express-turbo-self-checkout, and hopes your shopping experience at ******** supermarket has been a pleasant one.

FU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:
 
Hey! ON a lighter note I was leaving for work tonight and a 71 year old come up to me with a macbook air! She wanted assistance with her password but when I said...

" Do you need any help connecting to WiFi' her response was ... "no no if you can reset my password I can do that just fine as I need to download open office on your fast connection as at home it's too slow".

I was like W.T.FFFFFFFFF!!! I asked if she didn't mind asking how old she was (I hope she didn't think I was hinting on her) she told me she was 71!

Was totally gobsmacked! A 71 year old with a Macbook Air knowing how to use it!
 
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