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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: 3, Interesting) by nobu_the_bard on Monday December 23 2019, @06:01PM (4 children)
"Find" is an option supported on the browser of every phone I have seen without need of a keyboard shortcut, though. Even the designers of phone browsers expect you to want it.
I saw a kid the other day, presented with a long document on a computer, deliberately reopen the page on his phone to use the Find tool because he didn't know you could do that on the computer as well. He was more "smartphone literate" than "computer literate" I suppose.
Maybe the splash page for a new browser's first open ought to have some actual useful information instead of being an overblown advertisement for sponsors or the browser's brand.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by drussell on Monday December 23 2019, @06:41PM (1 child)
So true. I hadn't even really considered the implications of this until now.
There is going to be a precipitous drop on the number of people with any real understanding in the entire range from actual useful, productive computer skills through vague computer usability knowledge as the vast majority of "regular, average" people move to content-consumption based/optimized devices like a smartphone or "pad" device.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Monday December 23 2019, @06:52PM
I don't know, was there ever a time when there were a lot of people actually literate in computer usage? The kid in this case would have been one of those people that simply never used a computing device in the 70's or 80's, and by the 90's would be hunt-and-peck typing their once-a-week use of a computer at their job to fill in a time sheet. In the 90's and 00's user interfaces were evolving (devolving?) so fast I don't blame anyone for being confused.
I have been using computers since the mid-80s, and there was no time when I did not see people befuddled over user interfaces. Whether they were intuitive or not. Heck, every time i have to use a word processor I have to pick through the menus because it happens so rarely that I don't bother learning any shortcuts. Microsoft will randomly rearrange the menus, toolbars, and options ever release anyhow.
Today's smartphone-literate kid is yesterday's "computers are only for nerds" kid.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by progo on Monday December 23 2019, @07:12PM
You're never going to successfully teach "there is a Find command, bound to Ctrl-F" using the new-profile welcome screen. Users have to meet you half-way.
In Waterfox (Firefox fork), the main menu has a clearly labeled 'Find in This Page' command with an icon and a shortcut hint. If you don't see that… I honestly don't know how to help you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @08:37PM
Followed immediately by the same 90% that this article references immediately forgetting any of the useful information presented there. Esp. if it is only presented once.
Now, if the useful info appears every time the browser is started, or a new window is open, then maybe, after months of usage, one or two tidbits will sneak past the lack of curiosity that resulted in the "transfer web page to phone to perform search" action of this kid.