Comment by nytesky
3 months ago
Seniors today were professionals using technology 20 years ago.
In many ways interfaces have remained pretty static since then.
The only real innovation was the iPhone, but it’s just a more responsive multi touch palm, to some degree.
We still use windowing computers with mice/trackpad and keyboard, have pocket computers with apps and touch screens, and interface with more less the same browser with URL bar.
We maybe are on cusp of VR and that will be a sea change in interfaces, if it ever comes to pass. And voice commands, but pretty limited function so far
That’s from the 90s to today.
Compare that to 60s to 90s, where you barely had desktop calculators, and used magnetic tape and maybe punch card inputs:
We're probably heading for a future where seniors know what a filesystem (and other concepts we take for granted) is and younger generations don't because they've been trained to use iOS and Android fully.
Just as the youth from that time has no idea what punch cards and tapes are. ;)
Except... file systems are still there and if you want to be anything more than a user (or "creator"), you need to know about them.
But filesystems aren't going away, free and direct access to them are just being taken from us.
You have to be old to have lived when man walked on the moon.
>Seniors today were professionals using technology 20 years ago.
This is correct. Folks, VisiCalc was introduced in 1979, when today's ninety-year-olds were 44. They had not even lived half their current life.
> The only real innovation was the iPhone, but it’s just a more responsive multi touch palm, to some degree.
You can’t just treat this as a throwaway line. Touch interfaces signal a fundamental shift in the way people interact with computers. You just take swipes and gestures for granted. Have you watched a senior try to interact with the modern web? The interface is not only the buttons of the browser, but the page itself. Today we have shifting interfaces that move because of lazy load ads. We have popups that one needs to understand how to close. We have essential functions buried behind an arbitrary “hamburger” menu icon. We have sites that hijack the back button. Sites that deliberately try to deceive. And lots of software (including Microsoft apps) has shifted to a cloud model. This becomes an inextricable aspect of the interface itself. Suddenly, there’s no means to “save” and old “digital paper” model/metaphors have given way to “infinite web page” documents.
I spend a lot of time with seniors and see firsthand the roadbumps and dead ends they face.
That's a weird take, we have enough stories of people growing up with mobile phones having less of a clue about desktop OSes than people aged 30-60. We have other people (seniors now) who never really clicked with computers in the 90s-2010. There are so many groups who would fall into the category of benefitting from this.