[K12OSN] AJAX and users

[Burke Almquist]

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I have to disagree. He didn't say the users were stupid, he said they  
were ignorant. That simply means that they don't know or understand  
something, which is true in this case. It doesn't convey superiority,  
or at least it shouldn't. Tone is hard to convey in an email, but I  
wouldn't necessarily assume that he was blaming the users.  He just  
said that they would require some training.  Frankly, that's a good  
idea with any new application. It will simply be one more thing to  
cover in the training.
The back button is designed to take you back to the previous URL you  
visited. It doesn't say undo on it, nor does it function that way.  
Many web forms warn you that hitting the back button won't unto  
hitting submit, so this is hardly a unique problem to AJAX sites.  
Since a webpage shouldn't be able to alter the browser controls (that  
would be a huge security hole), we are going to have to train/educate  
users on that idea as part of using a new web-based application.



On Jan 17, 2007, at 5:42 PM, Dan Eliot wrote:

> Huck said regarding AJAX:
> "I agree...it's just a matter of training ignorant users"
>
> I disagree strongly (but politely) with this statement.
>
> The internet is full of "smart" web designers and software companies
> foisting "the next big thing" on unsuspecting "dumb" users who are  
> just
> trying to keep up.
>
> If AJAX is going to become important to the average user, then  
> somebody
> either needs to FIX the back button issue or GREY OUT the back  
> button when
> the user visits an AJAX rich page.  Just watch, some browser maker  
> will
> solve this issue one way or another within the next year.
>
> Anyway...  Users are just transferring their previous knowledge to  
> a new
> situation.  Something they do naturally, and something we should  
> not blame
> them for  :-)
>
> Being a long time web designer myself, I wish more web sites would  
> focus
> on getting the basics right (like clean design, standards, and  
> usability)
> and ignore AJAX until later in the process.  The Wordpress blog  
> platform
> is an example of good usability coming FIRST, and AJAX being added  
> much
> later.
>
> My $0.02,
> Dan
>
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