While thinking of what to write about this morning I thought that some questions should be asked.
Does technology serve a broad audience? Or a broad enough audience? In other words, are we serving enough people, with what technology brings to the table? What do people who happen to have a computer, who have no more than a high school education, and possibly less, use the computer for? Do they use it to look at porn? Do they use it to set up My Space? Is it for Flickr? Music? Email? Is the computer user friendly enough for people who might be learning challenged? If it’s not, then what do they do with it?
Who do we as marketers and web masters gear our websites to? What is the demographic? Do we even consider the number of people using a computer who don’t really fit the audience that we THINK we are attracting? Do we even TRY to speak to that segment?
Is the cell phone and it’s current capabilities the “dumb’ed down” version of the PC? Is what is on the phone from a spec standpoint what all users en masse want? Or what we think will sell more phones? Do we not give the people that use any type of technology on a day to day basis, enough credit for what they want? and how they might want to utilize it?
When does any type of app, fly completely over someone’s head? What is the level, when someone just shuts it down and says,”this is too difficult”? Will all generations from here on out be so technically gifted, and knowledgable that nothing will be impossible for them to grasp? Regardless of educational levels?
What does user friendly really imply? Does everyone need a computer? If so why? If not, how come? Does anyone use a fax machine anymore? Why is YouTube so popular? Why is MySpace the same? Does anyone care about social networking? DO I really want my friends to know what I’m doing at all times? How can I find really cool web sites? Without having to put up with google ads?
And speaking of Google, should I care about what they do? and how they do it? Does Google make my life easier? Does Microsoft? Does technology make my life easier, or does it complicate it because of updates and licences and fees and subscriptions and user names and passwords and security threats and viruses and hackers and…..???
Do we know what we want? Do you know what we want? Do we know what you want? We all think we do, but you know what? No you don’t, and neither do we..
Does Microsoft? Does technology make my life easier, or does it complicate it because of updates and licences and fees and subscriptions and user names and passwords and security threats and viruses and hackers and…..???
This sounds more like a good plug for open source software. But over all, I think that if an app is too difficult for a user, they should be able to find an app that does the same thing but with an interface that they find more usable. If they can’t and they really want to do what the app does, then they will normally stick with it. That’s just my experience.
It’s interesting how often we have to adjust our business to our applications rather than having the flexibility of adjusting our applications to our business! I hope as we continue down the road of technology that we can implement more flexibility with only the necessary functionality.
Good questions! I think in a lot of ways, especially for marketers, the answer is, “Yes! Things are too complicated!”.
I can only liken to a coach who would like to have an ideal team with ideal players every year, that he just takes and plugs into his “offense” or his style. But it seldom is like that. So what the better coaches do is they take what they have and build off of it. They play the heand they are dealt and they run with it. The coaches that try and make or force their players to conform or be something that they are not, do not do well.
My point is that in business nothing is ever perfect. No 2 clients are alike and if yuo cannot adjust to that, you will not succeed. By adapting and being flexible and adjusting you are fluid, mobile and can do things on the fly with efficiency and greater results.
Nice questions! Very interesting.
For me, no matter how user-friendly a technology is, it still requires a little familiarity, curiosity, and knowledge. Yes, it makes our lives somewhat easier but it expects us to do something else in return, like updating, upgrading, security procedures, and so on…And I don’t think people with less education can easily cope up with these responsibilities.
Thats a great answer! And since most people are inherently lazy, we can expect them to abandon anything that requires updates, downloads and renewels. It’s not to say that less educated people don’t use technology, it’s probably more apt to say that they are more likely to abandon something that is more technologicaly complicated. I think we have just figured out our next blog topic.