Should PC’s be easy to use for everyone, or should you actually need some kind of understanding of how they work?
I recently saw an article about a new computer aimed at “computer illiterate” users, the Alex PC. Elsewhere on the ‘net, people were arguing about whether or not trying to make it easy for “non-geeks” to use computers and internet was a good idea or not, which provoked some thoughts which I thought I’d share.
Why not?
If you think about it, why would it be a bad thing?
Well, I’m sure we’ve all helped <insert someone who knows very little about computers here> – some of us may even be the go-to guy for all family and cousins for computer problems (thank god I’m not) – and let’s face it, it’s not always very fun; It can be very frustrating as a matter of fact.
That’s not all though. Why do botnets grow, despite all the measures we take to protect our computers? Yep, a lot of these are most likely computers from people who don’t understand them very well. Security issues such as this and phishing can be major concerns unless you understand things correctly (and even if you do things can slip past you)
So we can safely say that uneducated users can fall prey to various things on the internet, and computer problems that fall on the shoulders of others aren’t always fun to work out.
I can’t find the discussion at the moment, but a lot of Linux people (the Alex PC uses Linux) were also saying the same – If you can’t use computers, you shouldn’t, and computer makers shouldn’t cater to them.
Apple has figured it out
This may come as a bit of a surprise from me, as I’m not exactly the first person to praise Apple’s products. I often call their stuff “fashion gadgets”, in good humor of course ;)
Especially after they unveiled the iPad I was pretty quick to join the ranks of people who said it was a pointless, pointless device, with tons of better alternatives available.
But that’s only if you think of it as a computer’ish, tablet PC or smartphone type.
If you think of the iPad as a beginning of something everyday-like, such as a TV, but for internet use etc., it may suddenly start making some sense.
For a computer for computer illiterate to work, it must not be a computer.
Part of the problem could be that some people are indeed afraid of using computers. That’s why the device shouldn’t be marketed as one, and that’s why I say Apple may have nailed this with the iPad.
Not a computer?
When you think of everyday appliances that even children and the elderly can use, such as TV and radio, what do they share?
They are both much less complex to operate than a computer.
To watch TV, you just turn it on. It turns on usually pretty quick, and that’s it. It’s on, it’s working. You don’t need to do anything else.
What happens when you have problems with a TV? You turn it off and back on, which usually fixes it. If the image doesn’t show, you press a button to have it automatically search for channels and so on.
When you turn on a computer, it boots up. You get a few screens, which each in turn tell you to press a key if you want to do thing X (such as go to BIOS). Then it takes some more time. You wait, probably input a username and a password, wait, and now you get to the desktop.
You probably know you don’t want to go to the BIOS or the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool on bootup, but someone who doesn’t know what they are doesn’t know whether they should be pressing the keys or not.
I could go on about the things that happen after you’re in the OS, but I think you get the point – just starting a computer can be an annoying and confusing experience.
How does a non-computer computer work?
Let’s take all the cues from the appliances that are in everyday use: Make it boot up in seconds, not tens of seconds and make it simpler.
I haven’t used an iPad, but I think it (or a similar device) could fit the bill pretty nicely here.
You start it, it boots up (hopefully very quickly) and you get the applications. In this way, the iPhone OS works perfectly for it, as it abstracts things like applications and file storage – Things just are somewhere and they are always presented in a similar fashion.
When the device or application crashes, the user just reboots it. That should fix it. It should not require understanding cryptic error messages or require changing a setting or anything. Just restart it and it’ll work again just fine (This is why it should boot very fast)
Currently there are some fast booting Linux distros available which could suit this bill. Also, in some Asus motherboards there’s a technology dubbed the ExpressGate: Power up PC, and ExpressGate is ready for internet browsing, chat or skype or whatever in a matter of seconds. It’s essentially a Linux with a custom, simplified, window manager. Features like these could make using a computer simpler as well, however I think a separate not-a-computer type device could work better.
Great benefits
I think an internet capable device as simple to use as a TV could bring great benefits. Even though the computer is almost ubiquitous nowadays, there are still plenty of people who don’t own one.
Everyone should have a device capable of accessing the internet, if only to use Wikipedia :D