The User Is My Mom
theuserismymom.com> You should design with your mother in mind
If you're a guy, you know those prototypical ads that show the incompetent male who can't fix something/clean properly/file taxes, and then the wife/girlfriend shows up and saves the day?
I imagine this meme of the incompetent mother who doesn't understand computers must feel the same way for women.
Agreed (not sure about your parallel with those ads, though). From the FAQ:
> We're accepting suggestions for future moms to work with, so we can review more sites
This is just baffling. Could it be more sexist?
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Would anyone please provide criticism so I can improve on my future comments?
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As to what I meant and may have been unclear: the authors are making an implicit equivalency between:
• people who will struggle to understand a website
• mothers of website makers
This is, to me, blatantly sexist — at least until they extend it to "parents of website makers".
Jesus Christ.
it's a parable, he means "older people", why is it, when it's a guy it's ok but if it's a woman it's sexist.
sure, his words could be "parent" but:
1) it doesn't flow
2) it's something everyone can relate to
3) we're from a generation of the largest number of single parents (which are mostly women)
4) it's an adorable method of wording, not a derogatory one.
for the love of god can people stop harping on about sexism, sexism exists and you just hurt the cause when -every- time soemone says "woman" you just jump to the defensive and start slandering everyone.
Don't assume malice, your life will be easier.
> She yells at her computer, doesn't know what a twitter is, and struggles to find windows she's minimized.
> You should design with your mother in mind. If she can't understand your site, others will struggle as well.
I'm not sure your mother represents the average user, and likely does not fit the target demographic of most web sites/applications.
Maybe I'm missing something...but how is this useful? I get that we should all design for actual people. But most of the time, "most people" (and perhaps more importantly, most paying customers) aren't going to be your mom (or people like her).
I guess it's about having someone who's going to stumble over the details that many of us would miss (because we have so much knowledge).
I watched a bit of their twitter demo and it was actually pretty entertaining. During the account creation process it suggested potential usernames like 'pam18773642' and she said, "how the hell would I ever remember all those numbers?" Once she'd picked a name it wasn't obvious that it was valid.
I agree, you need to know who your target audience are and test for them. Still, it's enlightening to see the web through the eyes of someone with very little experience.
My mom gets tired of computer stuff, but she's still set up a router with port forwarding and installed parts in a computer before. Last week she was trying to get her cloud dvr working so she could leave her house while her mare is in foal.
I think if you build something that's internet-connected you could probably stand to ask yourself whether someone like her can use it. She may try, after all, and she's definitely the kind of person to leave frustrated reviews of your product on Amazon.
My mom could never figure out how to double-click a mouse without moving it a tad. When she uses a tablet, she's understands swiping, but she can't help but touch the screen when a "normal" user would point without touching. She's starting to get it but I think shopping on Amazon may forever be out of reach.
She's definitely not the average user, and while usability is important to a website, the average user ought to be more concerned about security and privacy.
Agree, first research your user profile, then persona. 95% of the case mom will not be your persona. Learn from awesome Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer? https://www.edx.org/course/entrepreneurship-101-who-customer...
This is starting to cross the border beyond a fun idea you want to share and just slightly changing your business model and pimping HackerNews for publicity (again).
A service that is desperately needed.
Ever try and get your grandparents to use an iPad? Your grandparents defeated the Nazis, they're pretty fucking awesome people. And then you have to humble them with some stupid, ""Swipe up to get to the settings..." They're like, "Why can't we just have a button?" And they're right.
Too much design today relies on gestures that make no sense. Font sizes are way too small / don't scale / weren't tested with large fonts. Integration with services that not everyone has heard of. Thumb readers that don't even work for elderly users. It's all gotten a bit out of hand.
In any event, this is a good way to validate the complexity, and get ideas on where your marketing / education materials are weak.
Hiring the elderly for QA is a great idea.