Tony ([info]quikchange) wrote,
@ 2008-03-17 08:58:00
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Current location:826 Valencia, 94110 (The Pirate Supply Store)
Current mood: amused
Current music:He Wasn't - Avril Lavigne
Entry tags:anecdote, geeky, psychology, technology

Observations on watching a kid use a computer
Yesterday I was helping a kid edit an essay at the Pirate Supply Store - it's a front for a writing clinic - and couldn't help but notice some interesting characteristics of the manner in which he used the computer.

Like many people, he was using webmail as online storage. Surprisingly, he was using his mom's Yahoo/SBC account instead of having one of his own. I've heard that Google was surprised to discover how many people type entire domain names into their search box instead of the browser's address bar but watching this in person is still pretty weird. The kid typed "yahoo.com" into the Safari search box, which brought up Yahoo as the top hit. That's when it got even more bizarre. Google had conveniently provided links to the commonly used subsections of Yahoo in the search result. The first of these was Mail, on which I expected to see the kid click. Instead he just clicked on the main link and went to the yahoo home page before eventually logging in and arriving at his inbox.

The next observation to surprise me was the difficulty he had selecting text with the mouse. I'd previously assumed that any middle-school kid in San Francisco would be an expert mouse-user and he certainly displayed no other signs of impeded dexterity so I am tempted to attribute this difficulty to unfamiliarity with basic usage of a mouse. My hunch is somewhat supported by his complete surprise at my introduction of the scroll-wheel to his arsenal of mouse-using techniques. Later on I noticed that he tended to backspace his way through multiple words upon realizing that he'd mistyped one instead of just repositioning the cursor. Admittedly, I have seen this behaviour in expert computer users as well.

Made me wonder how much exposure kids really get to computers in school and how many kids in this city lack access to one at home. Maybe desktop computers are just getting old though, since he seemed to have no trouble using his cell-phone. Finally, I can't help but wonder if there's a way to make the enormous number of people currently using webmail as storage to start using the more effective tools we now have available for storing dynamic textual documents on the Web.


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[info]kinthelt
2008-03-17 09:37 pm UTC (link)
I have witnessed the typing URLs into search fields on many, many occasions. Even after being reprimanded repeatedly, Christine still does it. And it makes the tech support part of my job frustrating when I tell people to "type the following into the address bar of Internet Explorer...." and they instead do a Google search. Basically, I attribute it to people learning how to do things one way, and being too lazy (or not smart enough) to explore alternatives which may be more efficient.

His lack of mouse skills could be due to a trackball at home. Or possibly a trackpad (or whatever they're called) on a laptop.

I admit to having backspaced through entire words instead of repositioning the cursor. Sometimes it's easier to delete the most recent thought out of your mind and recreate it (and similarly on the screen), than it is to analyze exactly what you've written and correct it.

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[info]quikchange
2008-03-17 09:44 pm UTC (link)
Kicks self for not thinking that the kid might be used to a different pointing device, especially since I actually use a trackball myself!

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[info]grosskur
2008-03-18 04:46 am UTC (link)

Why does it surprise you that people type URLs into the search box? It's simply a better user interface. Try mistyping a domain name in the address bar. You get taken to the wrong site. Or your web browser hangs for five seconds trying to resolve the nonexistent address, and then displays a ridiculous error page about registration, DNS servers, firewalls, and proxies (at least Firefox does).

Now compare this to what happens when you mistype a domain name in the search box: Google either corrects it automatically or offers suggestions. And you don't have to remember whether what you are looking for is a .com, .net, .org, .ca, .us, etc.

I'm also interested to know what these “more effective tools we now have available for storing dynamic textual documents on the Web” are :)

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[info]quikchange
2008-03-18 06:43 am UTC (link)
Alright, I see your point as usual. And I was talking about Google Docs.

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