Technically Simple or Simply Technical?
by August 5th, 2008 Patrick GreerI was reading Seth Godin’s blog this morning and the article of the day was called, Should you ignore the N00bs? It’s really the perfect follow up to the article I wrote yesterday called, The Struggle Between “Dumbing Down” and Educating the “Non-Technical“. Before I go any further I do want to point out the the “word,” “n00bs” is not a major misspelling but rather insider language in the tech/geek world for new users or “newbies.” This refers to people who often “don’t get” what to the “tech savvy” are relatively simple concepts. Seth gave an example of the old “Any Key” joke from the DOS days where you would receive a command to press, “Any Key” and often people who asked where the “Any Key” was. It sounds silly to experienced tech users but we do have alt, ctrl, fn, and esc keys. I can see the confusion to a point. Maybe the command should have read, “Press any key on the keyboard.”
I think that would have been enough to avoid any confusion for a number of people. However Seth also makes a good point when he said,
The problem with this approach is that you can never be simple enough. And of course, the bigger problem: Once you dumb it down so every single person gets it, you bake out the magic and the mystery and the elegance.
As I mentioned in my previous article and Seth reiterated, great design should be intuitive and eliminate confusion. I definitely believe in the concept of being “user friendly.” Another strong point he made was to make it easy for people to ask for help or to see see the meanings in terms. Does your web site for example have an FAQ section? Do you have a glossary of unfamiliar terms or link to definitions elsewhere on the web? At the least do you have a contact form, e-mail address or phone number others can contact you with?
One final but important aspect of a modern web site we stress having is a blog. Yes, a lot of web site visitors or people in general will not “get” a blog in terms of what it means but it gives you and/or your company or organization the opportunity to teach others on a frequent basis what you are passionate about and what makes your company remarkable.
It took me a long time to get some of the things I am most passionate about like RSS, Blogging, layers within graphic design programs, etc. No one dumbed down those ideas for me but once I “got it” it’s about all I talk about these days. I know they are some people who will never get or rather “care” about what we do and that’s fine but how can we reach out better to those who will get it? What is your experience?
August 6th, 2008 at 6:21 am
“nOObs” probably answers your questions of IT professionals’ communication better than anything I can say. The sarcastic superior attitude of some of the IT community is its greatest enemy and yet its most alluring hook. Many schools of thought have had language that was not familiar to others, and this lack of literacy has made communication difficult. Initially I think of the medical and engineering communities.
The medical community is coming to know that the responsibility lies with the professional to devise language easily understood by patients and family members. The main question to the professional is what is my goal? Do you want to help business people “buy” into these innovations for the good of their business? Do you want them to enjoy these “new” vehilcles of communication as you do?
“Any key” is funny, but shows how the manuals have been frustrating to many of us who did work into the night struggling with the “inside” language used with IT professionals. Today I purchase books with plenty of illustrations for any new software or computer components because I refuse to play the “glossary” game. I don’t desire to learn a new language. When I purchase software I have a specific purpose and I do not desire to spend much time figuring out how to make it work.
Any good communicator works to be understood. If that is what Seth Godwin and others call dumbing down; then they will be limited to those who share their specific language. That seems to work for him. If I worked on that premise I would shrink my circle of influence greatly.
My goal is to be easily understood. I will work tirelessly to develop language to put my listener at ease. Anyone who does not give me the same courtesy obviously is not that concerned with my ease, but their own.
To me this dilemma boils down to what is the main goal?
August 6th, 2008 at 8:22 am
You make some very good points Kay.
As you know when I talk to people I try my best to translate certain concepts in to ideas people already understand. As stated I certainly believe in trying to make an experience “user friendly.”
What amazes me is we still have something “complicated” like phone numbers we have to look up or remember. Thankfully we have address books and phones that store numbers in memory. Ironically web sites also have “phone numbers,” well not “technically” phone numbers per se but something called I.P. addresses that look like 127.0.0.1 . I know it would be really complicated but I’m surprised a friendly name system never developed for phone numbers so we would have to tell people if we ever switch numbers however I have a feeling some people like the fact it’s a little complicated so they are not easily found and called! Web site hits or e-mails are a little more silent.
I guess my biggest frustrations involve business owners who are not open to learning how to use new technologies that could help their business grow. I’m not talking about concepts like computer programming or running programs via the “command line” but rather how to type a web address into an address bar or knowing what a blog is. It’s not the lack of knowledge that bothers me but the lack of desire to learn new things, especially if they are business people.
This issue has also been an issue with computer user groups. User groups were at their peak in the 80’s to mid 90’s when everyone was a new user so to speak but most now tend to cater to new users and rarely explore advanced topics. It great that these groups are there to help but when the easy learners start hearing the same things over and over again they don’t have a desire to make return visits and thus the new users don’t have as many “experts” around to help them learn.
I have also experienced these same feeling in churches too, not just technology. It’s always been my desire to see seminary style classes in what we call, “Sunday School” or have a chance to learn to original biblical languages like Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, etc. at a younger age instead of just saving it for the seminary students.
I love the point you made about the tech creators who are more concerned about their own ease. You nailed it. If you are in an industry be it tech, trucking (remember CB talk?)
Even I get frustrated with the printing industry which I work with a lot who has their own brand of tech speak.
Also another good point about buying books with illustrations. I’m very visually myself I love screen shots and online I subscribe to quite a few video podcasts that help me learn what I need to know for my work. A good example is Photoshopuser TV - http://www.photoshopusertv.com/