If you're a guy, you know those prototypical ads that show the incompetent male who can't fix something/clean properly/file taxes, and then the wife/girlfriend shows up and saves the day?
I imagine this meme of the incompetent mother who doesn't understand computers must feel the same way for women.
> We're accepting suggestions for future moms to work with, so we can review more sites
This is just baffling. Could it be more sexist?
Would anyone please provide criticism so I can improve on my future comments?
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As to what I meant and may have been unclear: the authors are making an implicit equivalency between:
• people who will struggle to understand a website
• mothers of website makers
This is, to me, blatantly sexist — at least until they extend it to "parents of website makers".
> You should design with your mother in mind. If she can't understand your site, others will struggle as well.
I'm not sure your mother represents the average user, and likely does not fit the target demographic of most web sites/applications.
Maybe I'm missing something...but how is this useful? I get that we should all design for actual people. But most of the time, "most people" (and perhaps more importantly, most paying customers) aren't going to be your mom (or people like her).
I watched a bit of their twitter demo and it was actually pretty entertaining. During the account creation process it suggested potential usernames like 'pam18773642' and she said, "how the hell would I ever remember all those numbers?" Once she'd picked a name it wasn't obvious that it was valid.
I agree, you need to know who your target audience are and test for them. Still, it's enlightening to see the web through the eyes of someone with very little experience.
I think if you build something that's internet-connected you could probably stand to ask yourself whether someone like her can use it. She may try, after all, and she's definitely the kind of person to leave frustrated reviews of your product on Amazon.
She's definitely not the average user, and while usability is important to a website, the average user ought to be more concerned about security and privacy.
Ever try and get your grandparents to use an iPad? Your grandparents defeated the Nazis, they're pretty fucking awesome people. And then you have to humble them with some stupid, ""Swipe up to get to the settings..." They're like, "Why can't we just have a button?" And they're right.
Too much design today relies on gestures that make no sense. Font sizes are way too small / don't scale / weren't tested with large fonts. Integration with services that not everyone has heard of. Thumb readers that don't even work for elderly users. It's all gotten a bit out of hand.
In any event, this is a good way to validate the complexity, and get ideas on where your marketing / education materials are weak.
Hiring the elderly for QA is a great idea.
