Computer-illiterate people bring software down for the rest of us
Most people will agree that one of the most annoying things about Windows Vista is how it prompts for confirmation before embarking on any task with the slightest semblance of administrativeness. For example, if you want to install a program or open up msconfig, it asks if you’re ABSOLUTELY SURE you want to do so.
Generally speaking, if you’re one of the people who finds this incredibly annoying, then you are fairly adept at computing. When Vista dumbly asks you if you really want to do something, you most likely know what you’re doing and don’t need to be arbitrarily warned of the profoundness of your potential actions.
That being said, this is an example of software being designed for the people who don’t know what they’re doing. Linda Luddite is going to come to a Vista confirmation prompt and only then become aware of how her subsequent actions can possibly negatively affect her future dealings with her computer.
Thinking globally, this is all well and fine. Computing systems should be designed to be fully usable by everyone, including those lacking finessed expertise. For years, many people have been afraid of technology mostly because of their inability to deal with and use it.
This usually isn’t their fault, though. The software industry has always been, to varying extents, plagued with confused menu systems and shoddy user interfaces. I blame this for my fathers pessimistic dislike of computers as a whole. His only experience with them has been with Windows, and thus he attributes computers to having to struggle to do what he wants.
However, for technologically-knowledgeable people this kind of thing does nothing but slow us down. We know what we’re doing, and we don’t want some bullshit popup to impare our ability to efficiently do it.
Often as user-friendliness increases, as does the tendency for software to talk down to the user. The key is the find the balance between toning things down for the computer-illiterate while maintaining full usability for the rest of us.