Jakob points the way

This article starts talking about making computing/internet designed around individuals and not machines. As a multi-location user, I can appreciate his thoughts.

Supporting Multiple-Location Users (Alertbox May 2002)

But what really strikes home is his final statement about usability:

The next decade will bring the usability challenge of making the Internet sufficiently easy for the other half of the population to use. Making something easy for a college graduate is a piece of cake compared to making it easy for a high-school drop-out, but that’s both our challenge and opportunity in the days to come.

How many people are there out there like my neighbor who can’t figure out how to see what’s on the floppy disk I gave her, let alone copy the files to their hard drive. What will it take to get this type of person to the point that they can actually take advantage of the tool they are sitting in front of? I am starting to think I am a geek.