Discuss mailing list

[Andrew Norton <ktetch AT gmail.com>]

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I've been on this list for 14 months now, and I've seen a lot of stuff.
Mostly it's been "new T2's".

What I have *NOT* seen, is anything for the real audience, the everyday
user.

I'm a fairly techie guy (used to design robots for the nuclear industry,
currently work for a tech news site, and on a distributed computing
project that designs particle accelerators) and yet, I'm stuck with OpenNIC.

What few guides and documents there are, are geared towards the 1000
(estimate only) that would like to run a T2. For someone like me, who
has VERY limited knowledge about this topic, there's almost nothing.
That's not good.

Imagine a car. It may have the BEST engine in the world, but if it's in
the bodyshell, and with the controls of a Ford Model T, no-one will want
one. You will get a few enthusiasts, but the mass market will say 'looks
ugly, and too hard to use' and you will have effectively wasted most of
your time.

It's the same problem linux had 15 years ago. It was designed for
specialists in that field by other people in that field. It wasn't until
the likes of Ubuntu, with its userfriendlyness that it started to become
a viable alternative.

It's a VERY common failing with tech-groups. Everyone you see and talk
to has a good knowledge on the subject, so you forget about the everyday
person that knows nothing. Instead, because it's 'obvious', you ignore
userfriendlyness, to focus on more cool new tech stuff.
The number of groups I've been involved with over the years that has
done this will astound you.

The best test is to, every now and then, step back and say "that woman a
few doors away, could she use this, if she really wanted to, without
leaving our site?"
If the answer is no, you've got a userfriendlyness problem.

I brought this up in the IRC chan already, but I was advised to bung it
here as well, so here it is.

- -- 
Andrew Norton
http://ktetch.co.uk
Tel: +1(352)6-KTETCH [+1-352-658-3824]
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