To develop new tools to attract new, underrepresented users, requires skills other than technical. Technical skills are becoming ubiquitous, so what else is needed to reach these users, and how can these be realistic?

Interface design is important, as an area of user psychology, understanding the users you are targetting. However, does this need to be in a developer’s toolkit, or can it be offloaded to designers? There are many developers who have no interest in UI, and many designers who have no interest in coding.

If we’re targetting users who have never used a mouse, or may not even know how to turn a machine on, how can building stuff help? Will it always be necessary to have teachers there in-person, or are the assumptions made by the product designers wrong? Should Web-apps become embedded, for example in a set-top box, to lower the learning curve required? Perhaps the introduction of new technology should try to build on available skills, for example digital cameras mostly work in the same way as analogue cameras, so this paradigm is known. Computers are full of new paradigms, such as hierarchical filesystems, which must be learned. In fact, there are many people who don’t learn the concepts of the technology, and this can even lead to unforseen ‘problems’, where the normal functioning of the system is confusing to long-time users who are simply used to the defaults.

This brings up the importance of defaults. Who is to say that one system is better than another, as long as it works? Many times, the best way of working is a familiar one. “Bad” systems, which the user is used to, can be more productive than unfamiliar “good” upgrades. Defaults will be used by many people for many years to come, so they must be sensible, as they’re aimed at those who don’t know how to change them.

A good example of user-centred development is the Wii. There are many games for the Wii which have been ported from other consoles, or written in the mindset of a gamepad-style interface in mind. These have mostly been flops. However, those games which “get” the Wii have been massively popular, even with those people who traditionally don’t play games. By aiming specifically for these users, who don’t have expectations and haven’t learned ways of gaming from other machines, tactile, familiar interfaces can be used; ie. wave the controller and things on the screen move. There is no “magic” which needs to be learned, like pressing button “X” on the left changes object “Y” on the right for no discernable reason other than “that’s the way it works”.

Ultimately, the perfect world is not possible. Developers cannot know everything, there needs to be specialisation, but as long as there are enough “soft skills” to smooth the communications between coders, designers, marketers, etc. then things can improve.

Ultimately though, to make an impact across the board, it may require developers to stop work until they meet the user they’re developing for.

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