Comments on: “Where’s my Googlebox?!” – adventures in search for silver surfers

By: Teaching Web Searching To People With Cognitive Disabilities « Clear Helper

Teaching Web Searching To People With Cognitive Disabilities « Clear Helper — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:59:18 +0000

[...] during my interviews with them. The same problem was described by Henny in her article, “‘Where’s my Googlebox?!’ – adventures in search for silver surfers“. It and its subsequent discussion inspired me to write this [...]

By: The role of accessibility in the usability profession today – and tomorrow « The ’58 sound

Mon, 31 May 2010 08:41:21 +0000

[...] Gerontechnologist – perhaps my most left-field suggestion, I think accessibility specialists should recognise the particular benefits of involving older people in user centred design, for the added-value that they are likely to provide as participants in requirements gathering activities, and evaluators throughout the design lifecycle. Arguably accessibility guidelines focus on the more extreme end of impairment, at the expense of those with less severe, but multiple, impairments. Evaluating with disabled people is important, and rewarding, but recruitment and scheduling can sometimes be difficult. So the unpredictability of the presence of any age-related sensory, dexterity or cognitive impairments make recruitment of older participants for participatory design and usability testing a particularly attractive option, particularly if resources are tight (see Henny Swan’s comments on the value of testing a web browser with older people). [...]

By: Rosemary Gabel

Rosemary Gabel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:58:18 +0000

Teaching beginners is my job, both the Seniors and the primary grade (K-6) children. One of my big frustrations has been trying to get them to use the keyboard. Kinders do everything with a mouse (they’re just learning their letters…) so the mouse habit is learned first. Only after they start learning their touch typing (3rd grade) can I even begin to get them to use the Enter key.. even so, they will still reach for the mouse. With the Seniors it is the same if they have NEVER learned touch typing.
The children have the same trouble knowing in which box to type a search query. Unfortunately, the 20 min of instruction to know the difference between the browser and the web page, has not been given the priority it needs (by administrators, and teachers alike.)
They just need to “get there fast!” So, hats off to the programmers who let the URL box be equally useful to Search. Now they can use the tool, without having to understand it. (The same as everyone who looks at an unfamiliar tool, and just uses trial and error to make it work.) I wish it were a properly organized world, but then, I didn’t build it!
Very few people want to take the time to learn.. they just want results. So the more clues given on the page, the better, like a grayed out word IN the box saying “SEARCH”. Keep up the useability testing, and keep it intuitive..(not assumed!)

By: shilpa2

shilpa2 — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:01:45 +0000

I also had a sense that having a URL address box populated with text put people off using it.”That’s been happening to me during usability testing as well, with a broad range of user types. get more twitter followers

By: shilpa

shilpa — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:00:14 +0000

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