Does Intuitive + Easy = Dumb and Dumber?

512 Finder LeopardThere is a problem with making technology – particularly computers – easy to use. The simpler and more foolproof they become, the less technically-proficient users tend to be. There’s that line from Rick Cook’s 1989 book The Wizardy Compiled; “Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”

Apple has made usability and user-experience a core part of the design philosophy in everything they produce (Well, almost everything. That’s right, I’m looking at you, MobileMe web apps). Mac OS X and, more obviously, the iPhone OS are shining beacons of the right way to design user-friendly, accessible, easy-to-use software.

What’s a Manual?

Did you need to read a manual when you got your first iPhone? Or how about your first iPod? Even the least technically proficient people I know own such devices and they never once cracked-open the “Getting Started” booklet. These are the same people, it should be noted, who bought copies of “Windows XP For Dummies” because they considered that OS too difficult to learn and use without a printed guide to-hand.

The iPhone is probably the ultimate user-friendly computer (though not the most accessible, but that’s a different matter). My neighbor’s six-year old son once took my iPhone from my hands and brandished it proudly to his friends, announcing “I’ve seen these on TV”. He then demonstrated to his impressed buddies, with absolute confidence, “This is how you take photos… this is how you play music…”

For a six year old with no previous experience of an iPhone other than what he had seen on television commercials, he was surprisingly adept with the thing. I doubt he could have been quite so confident (or impressed) with a Windows Mobile phone or, even worse, a Motorola.

By the Numbers

A recent article on MacRumors reported analysts’ predictions that Apple is expected to sell more than 80 million iPhones in 2012. Of course that’s not the same as 80 million iPhone users, but it’s still a mammoth user-base. If we’re to assume an OS convergence across iPhones and iPods (and maybe tablets, too?) in the next three years, we can easily assume a few hundred million people all over the world owning Mac OS X-powered devices that are super-easy to use despite their many and varied forms and functions.

A Nightmarish Tale

The end result? Well, in the world of desktop computers the drive toward user-friendliness has today produced legions of end-users who know how to send an email but don’t know the difference between POP3 and IMAP; users that practically live on Facebook but can’t tell you if they’re using Firefox or Internet Explorer to get there. Users that – and I have personally experienced this during years of providing technical support to friends and family – can’t even tell you what Operating System they’re using;

Liam: What Operating System are you using?
Friend: What’s that? Is it the Internet? I use Google.
Liam: No, I mean… [thinks]… The thing you see when you turn your computer on.
Friend: I don’t see anything.
Liam: Well, you ought to see something. It’ll probably say ‘Microsoft’ or ‘Windows something-or-other’…
Friend: Where should it say that? Do I have to click on something?

…and so on.

I’ve had these conversations (yes, exactly these sorts of conversations, I’m not exaggerating) with otherwise very smart, very well-informed individuals. University lecturers, engineers, lawyers and doctors are all categories of end-user I have helped and who have all responded precisely in that stumbling, bewildered manner.

A telling point; I’ve never had to provide tech support to fellow Mac users. Sure, I’ve shared hints and tips and recommended cool software. But no Mac owner I know has yet asked me how to find their trash folder, email a photo or connect to their wireless router. (All examples of common issues my Windows-using friends have shared.)

The Death of Technical Proficiency?

These people are not dumb, they’re simply computer illiterate. When I was in high school in the early 90’s, there was a lot of talk about the importance of computer literacy. Becoming computer literate at that time meant learning how to build your own network, how to ping servers, how to patch, bridge, daisy-chain and hack until everything kinda-sorta-worked.

But this wasn’t the Reserved Domain of the Geek. These were skills required of anyone who wanted to use computers. Today, the standard by which someone is considered (generally) computer literate has almost nothing to do with technical proficiency, and everything to do with throwing sheep at friends on Facebook.

More than any other software or hardware company, Apple has removed the barriers to entry that, when I was growing up, were simply accepted landmarks in the computer technology landscape. The soon-to-be-released Snow Leopard is the latest in a long evolutionary line of carefully researched and engineered efforts at democratizing computer technology – and all the potential it unlocks for end-users.

For thirty years, in fact, Apple has lead the way in creating intuitive, user-friendly computer technology. They’ve most assuredly made the “dent in the universe” Steve Jobs spoke of. But the more foolproof the products become, as Rick Cook warns, the greater the idiocy of those who use them. I guess that means there will always be a job for a geek like me. But, really… how much easier can it all get?

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