When it comes to a technological challenge, have you ever said to yourself “I’m such a dummy”?
I’ve had clients say this about themselves, or apologize to me for not understanding something about technology, or even for making a mistake when editing their own website.
As someone well acquainted with technological change, I’m here to tell you: it’s not your fault.
The problem doesn’t lie with you, but with the people who develop the technology you use. These developers may include “ease of use” among their goals, but “ease of use” also competes with time schedules, profits, and even egos. Often developers end up creating technology in ways that are expedient for them, even if it ends up causing you grief.
It always disheartens me when a big company with many customers and resources goes that route. The extra hours it would take their developers to work out the kinks in their technology would be more than offset by the thousands of hours saved by the users of their product.
It also exasperates me when a website developer creates a website that’s expedient to create, but not easy for you to use.
So next time you encounter something that’s hard for you to do, or you don’t understand, or that gives you a headache, remember — someone could have set it up to make it much easier for you. But they didn’t.
It’s truly not your fault.