Post by @amras@town.friendmaterial.lgbt

@amras@town.friendmaterial.lgbt 2 days ago

If you consider yourself "nontechnical" or feel that computers are for someone else to understand:

What are some questions you have about social media, the internet, computers, phones, linux? What you wish you understood, to help you make decisions about your digital life and digital communities. These could be "how does X work" but also "why do we do things this way" or "would it be possible to Y".

I'm chatting with a local collective about running some talks or workshops along these lines. Try to get normal folks comfortable talking about change they want to see. I have some ideas for topics but want to know what people actually care about.

No promises but this might turn into online resources too.

#nontechnical #survey #AskFedi

#nontechnical #survey #askfedi

3 Replies

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Sarma / Amras

@amras@town.friendmaterial.lgbt yesterday

Corrolary: if you do know your way around a server, what do you wish more users understood about digital infrastructure and the web, because it'd make the world better if they did?

Chris [list of emoji]

@suetanvil@freeradical.zone 3 hours ago

@amras

Tech nerd here:

1. Computers are not easy to use. The Windows/Mac/smartphone model of "user-friendly" only works because it dramatically limits what you can do with one. Most UX is about making software easy to use *without first learning anything*.

2. Reading a technical manual in a way that gives you useful information is an invisible skill that most tech people don't realize they have. Someone smarter than me needs to write down how to learn that.

(ctd)

Chris [list of emoji]

@suetanvil@freeradical.zone 2 hours ago

@amras

3. There is a wealth of incredibly powerful software tooling available but it requires up-front learning and tends to not have a conventional end-user UI and so will intimidate nontechnical users. It is well worth figuring them out though, if only so that they no longer intimate you.