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On 29/01/14 11:10, Neil Winchurst wrote:
Actually Neil the example was an ISP customer, so a home user so it would be fair to expect them to be lesser adept on average. However, if I was on the phone to someone who asked me to do something that didn't on the face of it make any sense, such as in this case write the word 'Click' on the mouse, I would be inclined to clarify exactly what I was being asked to do. In fact I did have a significant number of customers personally who, when I said 'Right click on the mouse please' asked me 'How do I do that?' and that's just a result of them using the left button exclusively and not having had any reason to click the right one.On 29/01/14 10:07, Gordon Henderson wrote:Funny? To some, yes, but actually... Who's fault is it that the customer didn't understand (or interpret) the request correctly? It's far to easy for us geeks to scoff at things like this, but something happened to me about 34 years ago that made me realise not everyone was as adaptable or willing to adapt to computers.Agreed, we should not scoff but ...we are talking here about people at work who are expected to use a computer as part of their job. Shouldn't they get at least some basic training in using a computer, or tested to make sure that they are sufficiently competent?Imagine a similar scenario about cars. Boss: we want you to make some deliveries for us. Employee: But I can't drive. Boss: Oh don't worry, you'll pick it up as you go along.Yet I suspect this is too often what happens about working with computers.Neil
One other customer using Netscape Mail couldn't get his mail.. or more precisely his secretary couldn't. For those who remember Netscape 2 and 3 you'll recall it had integrated email, and the mail application had a nice big friendly Get Mail button in the corner. When I asked if they had pressed Get Mail the secretary replied in a surprised tone 'No? Do I have to?' [1] Now while I do agree with Gordon up to a point, in this case the application /had/ been made pretty user friendly, with the, to my mind natural, assumption that if the user wanted to Get Mail they would click the Get Mail button. Perhaps that is a better illustration of the point than the 'right click' case.
Julian[1] Being professional I stifled the 'Only if you actually want to get your mail' response and said 'Yes please', then said nothing when she exclaimed 'Oh it's coming in now!'
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