[Discuss] Its not possible to make things easier for users

[dcrookston at gmail.com (Daniel C.)]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 3:35 PM, Mark Woodward <markw at mohawksoft.com> wrote:
> This is exactly why you can't help users. User's do not know what they do
> not know and somehow expect the world to take care of them.
>
> Even Apple is getting spanked for being too simple. More people use android
> than iPhone.

The Android is just as simple to use as an iPhone, to be honest.  Even
my girlfriend (who is wonderful, but simply cannot use a computer to
save her life) has had success with her Android.

Your thesis (that you can't help users because the world is just too
complicated) is confounded daily by the billions of people who spend
their lives interacting successfully with phenomenally complex systems
and devices despite not understanding their inner workings.  Do you
make allowances for that somehow?  Is software fundamentally different
from other things?  If so, why?

I agree with you that making "slick" user interfaces for software is a
serious problem.  Howerver, you seem to be saying that the problem is
fundamentally intractable which I think is overstating your case.

-Dan