Helping people "Master" their software

[NewsBot]

I'm very interested in how people learn to use software because I talk to all sorts of users all the time and their concept of how software works or should work is very different from what's actually true. Most people got thrown into the world of software somewhere around the Windows 98 days or later and have never been taught any of the basic concepts that help you stay organized when dealing with files, folders and*executable files*that re-occur in all software/operating systems because they've become standards. Us geeks have been using computers from before the days of mice and nice UIs so we*understand what's happening "under the hood" better than the average office worker that uses Simply Accounting*on an average XP box*or the fisherman who only uses a browser to check the weather and nothing more (mostly because they don't feel they're smart enough to do anyting more complicated).

 

These people usually have perfectly good computers* that can do a ridiculous number of useful, creative and fun things. It has nothing to do with the hardware, it's all about "Mastery" of their software. The more you master your software tools the more satisfied you will be with your computer.

 

I was watching*the video of Jensen Harris' Office 2007 interface presentation at MIX08 http://msstudios.vo.llnwd.net/o21/mix08/08_WMVs/UX09.wmv

It's a great video that many people should watch but at the beginning he showed one slide entitled "Good Enough".

http://ms-os.com/

 

Now... Jensen's talk was about interface design but that's not what I'm talking about here (even though I think it's VERY important).

The part of this slide I'm interested in is "I would be better at my job if I knew how to use it more"

 

When the new Live adds*came out on Youtube a while ago showing people using the products and not just some useless fancy swishing letters and smiley multi-cultural people that didn't inform people as to what the tools actually did, I was glad to see someone was trying to give*out useful information that*would help people use the software in a more productive way.

 

Microsoft*need to put MORE emphasis on helping people learn*and less on ineffective marketing.

A*bit of simple training put in video form on a well publicised website and on TV can help take away the mystery of software and give users a feeling of having mastered the tools they use every day. It would also help make*them see how ridiculous*it is when*people blame Microsoft for everything.

 

It's certainly allot better than just telling someone "It's your own fault your computer is a disorganized mess", which in many cases is true but that's not going to make the situation any better.

 

 

 

 

* perfectly good as long as you don't give it to a fearless person who installs all the free junk they can find online that*usually ends up taking over their entire machine.

 

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