Cleaner Code with CSS3 Selectors at 24 Ways gives 10 examples, with code, of some of the new techniques you will be able to use with CSS3 selectors. Now is your chance to learn all about n-th child with plentiful examples.
“Where’s my Googlebox!”–Adventures in Search for Silver Surfers is a report on some findings from tests with “8 silver surfers aged 60 to 80 testing Opera desktop and observing, amongst other things, how they went about carrying out searches.” While I agree emphatically with what they found about beginners to the web, I disagree with the application of these traits only to “silver” surfers. I think these characteristics are found in any beginner to the web. It’s ageist to assume that only elders experience these problems.
That silver surfer article is very interesting -although I agree with your comment on that these issues dont necessarily count for older people more than any other.
Although one commenter says:
“The problem was not a lack of sophistication, but a rational assumption that the technology should be as robust and predictable as technology in other areas of their lives.”
I also wonder about the idea that “you can teach any of these things in 20 seconds” Spoken like somebody who has never tried teaching basic computer skills!
.-= Masha´s last blog ..A wart snake in a fig tree! =-.
Thanks for flagging the “Where’s my Googlebox?” article.
I was part of the team that carried out the testing and agree that this is an issue that relates to many beginners and not just silver surfers. The point is however is that the testing was done with silver surfers.
There has been some discussion on my blog about this as will as over Twitter and is something that I’ve fed back to Opera. It would be great if you could leave a comment sharing your views as I think you’ll find myself (and others) would wholeheartedly agree!
The comment that these things can be taught in 20 seconds is, in my view, extremely misguided. Further down I do flag that users should not have to rely on assistance to work out technology – this is a usability fail. Our job as technologists is to do what we can to make it useable to all users intuitively.
.-= Henny´s last blog ..“Where’s my Googlebox?!” – adventures in search for silver surfers =-.
Henny, I’m on my way to your blog to leave a comment for you now.