SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
This week, I talked with Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google, about the time he spends with random people studying how they search for stuff. One statistic blew my mind. 90 percent of people in their studies don't know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page! I probably use that trick 20 times per day and yet the vast majority of people don't use it at all.
"90 percent of the US Internet population does not know that. This is on a sample size of thousands," Russell said. "I do these field studies and I can't tell you how many hours I've sat in somebody's house as they've read through a long document trying to find the result they're looking for. At the end I'll say to them, 'Let me show one little trick here,' and very often people will say, 'I can't believe I've been wasting my life!'"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Monday December 23 2019, @05:23PM (15 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @05:46PM (3 children)
And still they somehow manage to spend their lives in their phones, and routinely jump through some impressive app-imbedded hoops doing some nonsense or other.
Is it something about desktop systems that causes learning aversion, or is it everything that is even loosely connected with the notion of day job?
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Monday December 23 2019, @06:16PM
I think related investigation would find that a great number of the keyboard challenged youts of today would however know how to engage search from a mouse/menu action.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @08:29PM (1 child)
Much more likely it is the fact that desktop software does not have the "touch with my finger" aspect to it.
That, or the fact that the ones that spend their lives on their phone are doing little more than infinitely scrolling through a facebook feed. And that requires knowledge of just one action, swipe up/down with finger.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Monday December 23 2019, @09:27PM
don't forget swipe right/left for dating apps
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @05:49PM (1 child)
The shortcut is listed on the first level of Chromium's omnimenu, so it's not that they don't know the command but they don't know the feature even exists.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @08:32PM
90% of the general population has essentially zero curiosity. And with no curiosity, they don't bother to go look for things on their own (because it never even occurs to them to wonder: "Is there a different, possibly, better, way to do what I am presently doing".
The curious are the ones who find the features on their own, and they become the power users.
The rest only know how to do just what they were told by someone else, and they never even consider the possibility that there might be another way.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Monday December 23 2019, @05:52PM (7 children)
This. They don't know ANY of the short-commands. They don't know about ctrl+c/+v/+x to copy and paste and cut, they don't know +a to select all, they don't know how to mark text without the mouse etc. The list can pretty much just like go on like this until the end. They really don't know anything. PERIOD. THE END.
I don't really know why he is surprised about it or for that matter why he is so interested or upset about ctrl+f. I guess it's cause he is at Google and is a search guy and search is apparently the most important aspect of his work.
Speaking of Googling, I see people type things into the Google search box and then go and click on the search button to start the search with the mouse and I'm like why don't you just hit enter/return? They get this blank stare like some deer in headlights ... Lets not even get started on the whole obscure Google syntax for searching or boolean searching for that matter. I'm fairly certain 90% (or more) of the people don't know about that either, or use it, or even know what Boolean is. Perhaps they could google that while they are at it. Why have they not made a GUI for that? They might have and I just have not been paying attention. Don't they want people to get the most out of their googling?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Monday December 23 2019, @06:31PM (4 children)
I want my main menu at back. And my status line. No hamburger menus, no stupid pie menus, no mouse gestures. Everything should be easily discoverable. And get rid of sliders for on/off.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @07:34PM (1 child)
I think on/off sliders are my favorite. The only way to know what state they are in is to click on them. Brilliant.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday December 24 2019, @01:30AM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 24 2019, @09:35AM (1 child)
what is a hamburger menu?
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Tuesday December 24 2019, @10:21AM
Enjoy [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MostCynical on Monday December 23 2019, @09:34PM (1 child)
No, they want people to trigger some paid key words and then click on the first (sponsored) link.
they don't care you find anything you wanted - they want you to find the paid stuff, and be happy with that.
So many people even type the url into google search, then click on a different site that appears in the search results - so people seem to be happy voluntarily creating MITM/re-routing/re-directs.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Monday December 23 2019, @10:07PM
Once again, you live up to your name! Also, I think you're right on target. :P
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Tuesday December 24 2019, @01:46PM
I am beginning to suspect 100% of GUI designers are illiterate/stupid.
See your nearest GUI for a demonstration.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!