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December 30th, 2008 | Posted in Technical Writing 2 Comments »
Who is to blame?
In one of Alistair Christie’s recent podcasts, he interviews his 70-year-old mother about how she uses computers. Although they cover many topics in the interview, her tech guilt is the most salient part of the discussion. She blames herself for not understanding how to work computers and navigate websites.
When she can’t locate certain features on an interface (for example, Paypal), her first inclination isn’t to blame the bad user design of the site or software, but to think that somehow it’s her fault for not understanding.
The self-blaming attitude reminds me of a passage I read in Authentic Happiness years ago. Happier people, the author wrote, don’t blame themselves when things go wrong. Rather, they tend to see others as responsible. I’ve often reflected about this, most often while playing basketball. After throwing a “bad” pass that my teammate misses, I used to say, “Sorry,” or “My bad” — blaming myself. But after reading the book, I decided that it’s the other’s fault for not catching the ball. The pass was decent enough. Embracing this attitude, I feel better about myself.
However, clearly this attitude fails in other contexts. Not taking responsibility for blame is one of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Team members must take responsibility for both successes and failures, and not play the blame game. The same is true in marriage. No matter how much you may have initially resisted a decision, if you relented and went along with it, you can’t jump ship when the result is disastrous.
It seems, then, that at times you should include yourself in the blame (such as with teams), but other times you should not. The next time you’re frustrated with software, do you blame yourself for being “technically stupid”? Or do you blame the developers for the idiot design? The answer reveals a lot about how you view yourself.
Tags: Alistair Christie, attitudes, blame, dysfunction, generations, happiness, podcasts, teams
I suppose the larger lesson here is that when one views the world in black and white, one sees only black and white. It’s either my fault or not. It’s either the other’s fault or not. There can be shared responsibility. In the case of the 95-year old, sure, some responsibility lies with the user to attempt to avail herself of the documentation to learn the user interface. But it’s also the responsibility of the designer to try and help the user.
And, by the way, “responsibility” and even “blame” are not necessarily condemnations. If either of those are laid at your feet, it doesn’t mean you need to become defensive and angry. They are just opportunities to try to do better and/or differently next time.
Of course, they might be happier person within me. Ask me later.
Even though I’m in my mid-50s, I’m fortunate because of my many years of technical background. I’m an early adopter.
I see this tech guilt problem often as I teach grandparents about technology. Some think they are slow learners. When receiving instructions, they feel like they need to write down every step the first time through, rather than focusing to comprehend the concepts.
Much of the problem with computers and technology as a whole, is that they are not always designed to be user friendly. For example, I just bought the top rated VHS-to-DVD burner to copy over my old home videos to DVD. This machine, like many gadgets, is bloated with features that get in the way. The features you use the most are often buried in sub-menus.
That’s what I love about the Mac, iPod, and iPhone; they are designed from the ground up to be easy to learn and use. The iPhone is the perfect example; Apple threw out everything about mobile phones, and reinvented the phone. We all know the history of how Apple invented the Macintosh, but unfortunately, the “M” company infiltrated the majority of the business market with their clunky user interface and virus prone OS. Anyway, it has been my experience that, when I show a person how to use a Mac, they catch on so much faster. My point being that inventors need to focus more on usability and overload a device with features.
I also find the teaching technique to be important. If you’re familiar with the Suzuki method of learning piano: On day one, they don’t teach young students the names of the keys, or how to read music. They just show them how to play a simple tune by ear, and the child goes home glowing with self confidence.
Thanks, Shayne