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TECHNOLOGY
It’s Not Your Fault Computer Software Is Hard to Understand and Use
Don’t blame yourself for poor design
“I just don’t understand this computer stuff!”
How often have you heard someone say that? You know what? I made a very nice living for over thirty years fixing “computer stuff” and often struggle to understand it myself!
It’s not my fault and it’s not your fault either. Computer stuff can be confusing, hard, difficult, and downright stupid. There are two main reasons for that and the first is unfortunately the most prevalent: bad design.
Bad design
I bet you can think of many things you’ve used and maybe still use that are designed badly. A can opener that is hard to clean, a pot with handles that get too hot to touch, medicine warnings too small to read, a car with poor side visibility? You could probably add hundreds of things if you thought about it long enough.
The same is true with computers. Do you remember the early cell phones with their horribly obtuse menu systems? How about early VCRs — did you ever really understand how to program that? Do you sometimes struggle to reset the microwave clock after a power failure? That’s all bad design because it’s not intuitive.
