I was helping my father to get online just a few days ago – I helped him buy a wireless USB stick so that he could use his neighbour’s wifi signal (with her permission, I must add).
I’d forgotten just how much of a pain it was to deal with a Windows PC when installing a new device. (Before you ask, I did advise him to get a Mac, but there was a good offer at the time). Following the instructions, and using the manufacturers software, this new device just did not work – no connection could be made at all. Using my own hard-won knowledge of Windows, which I have used from version 1.0 up to XP Pro, but given up on at Vista, I disabled some software, had to restart a few times, and then got it all working in about half an hour.
Then I planned to install free anti-virus software, make sure the firewall was configured and working, and change the browser to one I can set up to open with the key pages he needs, and with the defaults for legibility that help him to see what’s going on. I also was going to set up his email account for him, setting up a new mailbox on one of the domains I own.
Pause for 200+ downloads
But I couldn’t do any of that, as there were about 270 different software updates trying to download and install themselves, as the machine had not been online since it was bought. I realised it would take about 2 hours for all of this to download and install, and only then could I make the computer secure against viruses and attack, and get the preferred browser installed. So I said I’d come back to do this when I had more time.
My father, who is an intelligent and intellectually curious man, watched some of this process in silent perplexion, and then asked me whether he should just take the new hardware back to where I got it, and perhaps consider getting a better, more modern computer. (It’s a year old roughly). He knew it was fairly inexpensive, but if it was a TV or a Car, he said, he wouldn’t put up with this sort of pointless time-wasting and unreliability.
And why should he put up with these sorts of problems? If the web is going to engage and excite people, getting online and getting things done needs to be simple, safe, and reliable.
I remember setting up my new cable broadband at home a few years ago – it was pretty easy, and it works really well, but the email account I was given (which I never intended to use, as I know how to set up my own domain and email) managed amazingly to get over 80 really nasty spam emails within a day of it being activated. Had I not had better knowledge, I’d probably still be resigned to deleting dozens of offensive messages every day, and I’d be paying £49 a year or more just to keep malicious viruses from trashing the data on my computer or allowing someone to go on a spending spree with my card or bank details.
How can we expect people to trust, use, contribute to, and enjoy using the internet if it is still so damn difficult to get started with it, and keeping going with it involves endless seemingly pointless downloads, updates, and restarts – never mind getting a whole inbox full of worrying hoaxes and offensive and potentially dangerous payloads?
Is this too much to ask?
It’s a question that hardware and software makers, as well as internet service providers, really need to address, because there is a huge potential audience out there that will use more, buy more, share more and get more fun and enjoyment from the online world – if only they could simply understand how to get it into their lives simply, reliably, and safely.
At the moment, that seems near to impossible, and I think there are huge numbers of people simply giving up on accessing the internet, because no matter who they turn to for help, it’s confusing, unreliable, costly, and therefore, just a waste of their time.
They will stick with the cost and inefficiency of 35mm film, ordering by telephone, printed mail order catalogues and walking to the bank to pay in and withdraw money for all the right reasons – because it’s clear, and it works, and they can trust it.
I think we have a long way to go before those words can be used to describe getting online for someone doing it for the first time – and that’s not fair, not good business, and the absence of those many millions of people is a loss to everyone who is online.
I am sorry. but if the user cannot cope with a modicum of complexity and learning curve of something. then why would you want them online using a full OS or a standard computer experience?. it is not only coping with using the os and the browser. it is also coping with internet culture. i think they are better offline or using a restricted and dumbed down experience like a Wii or a gOS Linux Machine. both cost 250 dlls. can browser the internet and work as close to an appliance as you can possible get.
While i pointed at the Wii and a gOS machine (in specific). that didn`t meant i thought that using linux to replace windows was the right way to go. it is not. ubuntu or Suse 11(the top consumer linux distros) while safer are harder to manage for low and medium end users. it would make matters worse given the general commercial tech ecosystem shortcomings they come with.
I think is simply unrealistic to ask for a lower barrier entry than now. Vista is easier and safer to use than XP. Leopard is easier than Tiger. Hardy Heron is easier than Gutsy Gibbon, suse 11 is easier than 10. etc.
The Things you ask for have been materializing the last two years. the mobile device is another where things get easier and safer with every release. the specific things i named are the lowest entry possible right now. your concerns in the post is something i have been reading every year for the last 15 years. the change has been that less and less of these kind of articles/posts pop up. that alone should indicate common usability evolution is doing its thing.
The last thing is that when i used the word “cope”. i was talking about the learning curve not the experience. the experience got nothing wrong at all. you say that where people start today is not good enough. i say you are looking it in the wrong angle. i say it is exactly as it should be in its historic context. exactly as it should be according to the times. or you are going to tell me that just because driving a car in a city is something that 90% can do. does that mans they do it right by default?. does that means they are instantly ready to go out into a highway or a country road?.
Oh wait…they don`t. since it is something that requires experience and culture to do in a efficient way. let alone good. why cannot cars can drive themselves and eliminate that learning curve so people don`t miss out of that too?. they will be able to do so. just not right now. does that compares with computers oses and the internet?. yes.
do i lack perspective?. doubtful since i have helped hundreds of users of all ages and education levels with their first online experience in the last 15 years and i have overseen thousand of users in the same time. just a thought
That means i am not replying you on a whim but with a good perspective and experience on that matter.
so to answer the question in your post:
“is this too much to ask?”
Right now?. yes. ask again in 2010 and there is a good chance that the question may not need to be asked.
i just have to look back 3 years and remember how much has computers, devices and the internet has changed to bet on a NO for 2010.
A funny thing is that i remember a article from 2002 that asked for that question. but the concerns presented where things that now have been taken care of. that article was also no less than 3 times longer than this one. i replied with “what you ask is impossible right now”. should be possible in no less than a decade” (not exact qoute) . now i am confident that the right answer was 8 years back then and that now it is no more than 2 years.
I am sorry too. It’s a pretty steep learning curve when something does not work AT ALL when you follow the instructions exactly. And as for complexity, my father has designed and built a number of public buildings, so that’s not the problem I’m talking about. He’s not a USER, he’s a PERSON.He should NOT have to learn in what ways he should ignore instructions given by the makers of hardware and software.When people have to “cope” with a really bad experience, I don’t think that’s good enough.
Computers are advertised and sold as tools to get things done. Manage your photos, get online, go shopping, bid on Ebay, do your banking, send emails, write letters, print greetings cards, surf the web. They should do the job as advertised. They don’t. They totally suck at doing that job. So while the majority of the world is still happy to accept operating systems and software that does not just work without hacks, overrides, patches and a need for constantly growing technical knowledge, the impossibility of getting it do basic things is always going to alienate and exclude millions of people.
If people can’t get online and get a beneficial experience using the mainstream tools the market provides, then the market is damaging itself. I agree that a Linux machine or Wii would be a far better experience, but you don’t see them being sold in the high street stores – it’s all Windows, Intel and Wifi – with the resulting “user experience” being absolutely lousy.
As Boris writes in an article here today, devices like the iPhone work like an appliance for novices and experienced geeks alike – and because of that it’s become a great success. Everyone has to start somewhere. I’m just saying – where most start right now, really is not good enough.