Muddling Through
June 29, 2004
True story: During a recent ad hoc user survey, I quizzed my sister-in-law about her browser preferences. Given the fact that she’s happily using OS X on a late-model iBook, I wasn’t surprised to hear that her primary browser is Safari . . . except when she checks the weather. For that, she uses Internet Explorer. At first I thought she might be getting weather updates from some strange source that only works with Internet Explorer. Upon further questioning, I learned that Internet Explorer is set to use My Yahoo as its start page. Since My Yahoo reports the weather for her hometown, she knows she can easily get the latest weather report by simply opening Internet Explorer.
I explained that she could easily set My Yahoo to be her Safari start page, but she wanted no part of that idea. She only uses My Yahoo when she needs to check the weather — all she has to do is open Internet Explorer. She acknowledges that she could probably setup a bookmark or a toolbar link, but her current approach works, so she’s not going to spend too much time worrying about it. She gets the desired results even if her approach isn’t logical or streamlined. I should also mention that, as a recent Stanford grad, she’s not a dumb person. In fact, my guess is that she’s a pretty typical web user.
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