[WEB4LIB] RE: testing web pages- a question

[Karen G. Schneider]

I am a home-based computer-literate person in a small town.  This means
that my neighbors approach me to help make decisions (which computer
should I buy?) or to solve problems (why doesn't my email work?).  

The vast majority of home users I interact with are using the browser
that came with their computer.  In some cases they have two or three
browsers of different eras, demarcated for different uses.  They also
don't know what javascript is, don't really understand what email client
they are using (I learned to phrase the question, "show me how you read
your email"), and have no interest in learning. They confuse Netscape or
Internet Explorer with the Web, happily download vast amounts of crap
onto their PCs, and assume all search tools have the same Googlesque
capabilities.  They don't just avoid help files; they don't even
acknowledge their existence.  

It's very instructive to see the Web through their eyes. Like the WebTV
user who wrote us about a site in lii.org he had trouble accessing, and
then agreeably reviewed our new site design in its prototype stages, my
neighbors make a wonderful test base.  

----------------------------------------------
Karen G. Schneider kgs at lii.org  http://lii.org 
Coordinator, Librarians' Index to the Internet
lii.org  New This Week:     http://lii.org/ntw 
      lii.org: Information You Can Trust!
----------------------------------------------