The Computer Skills Divide What you should know Original: Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Introduction The central idea is that you are nowhere near the average user in computer sophistication You are way way way above First we will look at a survey of computer skills Second we will consider the ramifications for designing programs Especially user interfaces From:The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think by Jakob Nielsen on November 13, 2016 Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Survey Organization The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Survey was conducted in 2011-2015 and published in 2016 Over 200,000 people in the 33 most industrialized countries Most countries had more than 5000 people surveyed Ages were in the 16-65 range Looked at job related skills Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

IT Skills Surveyed users were asked to perform 14 computer based tasks These tasks varied from very easy to more complicated Easy: Use reply all in email Complicated: Schedule a meeting room with a scheduling application with information from multiple emails How many of us could do these? Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Technology Proficiency OECD came up with 4 levels These are described next Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Below Level 1 Tasks must be well defined Only one function of the UI may be used No sub-goal and no reasoning required Deleting an email is an example 14% were at this level Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Level 1 A few steps and minimal number of operators Familiar types of applications Like web browser or email The task is easy to infer from the stated goal Examples of Level 1: Reply to all Find all email from a particular user 29% are at this level Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Level 2 Requires both specific and generic technology applications Navigation across various pages or screens Use of tools Multiple steps and operations Example: Find a document with a particular topic sent in limited time period from a particular user 26% are at level 2 Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Level 3 All of the above Goal may need to be defined by the user Criteria may not be explicit Unexpected results may occur Example: Scheduling the meeting room What percentage of emails from a particular user were about a certain topic Only 5% have these skills Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

100%? 14+29+26+5 ≠ 100 What is missing? 26% of those surveyed were unable to use a computer at all They never attempted any of the tasks Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Moral of this story You are among the top 5-8% What you understand about computers is much greater than the overwhelming majority This most applies to user interface The fact that a quarter of the adult population cannot use a computer is due to the fact that our interfaces are too complicated Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Don’t Tell Me! There are many things you never want to hear From your doctor: The medicine is not working I have never seen anything like this before From your auto mechanic: It would make a nice lawn ornament From your user interface designer says: I understood how it worked Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

You are not the user In general we do not design for us We are supposed to design for people who are much less capable than we are When you say: “surely people can figure out how to use our web site” Then you are likely wrong Let’s not even talk about your application Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Apple A company that has put a lot of thought and effort into user interface Who is too technology illiterate to use an iPhone? Most people cannot use all the features Everyone can use the basic functions Good user interface design is possible Just requires effort Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill

Conclusion The good news is that you are really something special The bad news is that you have to design for those who are not you We may call them morons and that makes us feel better However, if we do not design with them in mind we lose – they pay our salary Copyright © 2017 Curt Hill