I have been brought on by Sitepoint.com and DesignFestival.com as a usability/IA blogger, so you can catch me over there posting twice a week!
Check out all of my articles here (the list includes all Design Festival posts, too):
For the last two years, I have been going to an early morning yoga class at the local YMCA. It’s at six a.m. and has a lot of older folks and lycra. I have affection toward my yoga buddies because we’ve all learned to stand on our heads together. It’s a special kind of bond.
One of these people is a retired heart surgeon named Carl who rides his bike to class. In his spare time he consults on high risk heart surgeries for children. He is kind, motivated, and very, very bright (clearly).
So, WHY do you think Carl told me today that he is stupid? Because the hard drive on his two-yr-old computer is almost full and he doesn’t know what to do. This man has spent decades saving people’s lives, literally holding beating hearts in his capable hands. He took programming classes back in the punchcard days. Shame is not the feeling he should have associated with his computer!
I am frustrated by the divide between humans and technology. The only computer interface that the high schoolers I know are familiar with is Facebook. In fact, even though I am in the tech community, most of the people I know say something like “Oh, me and computers don’t get along” when I tell them my job is related to the internet.
Apple has made huge steps in bringing understandable computing to those who don’t have a bent toward the technical. In fact, Carl told me that after studying several Windows 7 books he was looking at Apple for that reason. I love that Apple offers an improved interface for beginners and local training for small fees; it’s a step. Even still, I find myself calling on my developer husband more often than I would like to answer questions I feel like I shouldn’t have to ask. Questions that make me feel stupid because shouldn’t I be past this point by now?
What we need is not faster machines with bigger hard drives (not to say I don’t appreciate my 12gb RAM), but computing experiences that help the humans using them maximize their potential. After all, a computer is JUST a tool for humans to get stuff done. Humble computing, let’s call it.
