As a technology company, we’re constantly faced with the question of how to make our products applicable and adopted by people of all technological capability levels.  This is why stories such as the one featured in a recent BBC story makes us turn and take notice.

As it turns out, The Gadget Helpline queried 5,000 people in order to come up with a top 10 list of words and techno-labels that confuse most people.  According to the study, these words make up the top 5: dongle, cookie, WAP, Phone Jack and Navi Key.  An interesting note about the top words that comprise this “techno-babble” list – three of them have to do with mobile web technology.

What lessons can we draw from the study?  A technique we technologists already know yet seem to forget quite often: A model known as KISS: Keep it simple stupid!

Even though we geeks may think it’s simple to snap photos and send messages on our cell phones, Apple debunked this with the release of the iPhone.  Apple, by focusing on ease-of-use and simplicity, unlocked smartphone functions that were previously hindered by complex menu systems.

The iPhone didn’t introduce any ground-shaking hardware capabilities, it merely pointed out how difficult and encumbering existing handsets made it to do otherwise simple tasks.  We have had “smart” phones on the market for a long time.  But many people don’t use the camera, compose a text message, or surf the web.  The iPhone made it possible for non-techies to conduct these tags.

As software developers and web developers, we must strive to keep our user interfaces focused on those who use them: the users.  Let us not forget whose needs keep us in business in the first place!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Design, Tips and tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.