alt Hacker NewsThey did. Our local libraries in the 90s had internet courses you could take that would teach you how to browse and search. But this stopped for everyone around 2000 when suddenly knowing how to use any piece of software was considered assumed knowledge for some reason.
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This is also why the wacko and bizarro concept that "removing options and configs from programs" aka Gnome's big purge more than a decade ago, is nonsense today.
All those studies about GUI usability were done in the early 2000s. Before phones. When most people were just learning how to use a computer. The idea of options certainly was confusing, because "clicking on things" was even confusing.
Yet today, we have a populous which, more and more, grew up with computers. And loves to personalize. And wants options. So just keep that in mind, all you frontenders, config options aren't necessarily bad. Ancient studies have little relevance 24 years later.
Sorry to hijack a bit, but felt it was relevant to courses, teaching, and the state of time in 2000 vs now.
They could; those were opt-in classes, neither of my parents took them. In my case, it was because my mom didn't care, and my dad didn't think he needed them (worked at IBM in field tech). I imagine most folks were in the same boat.
I wouldn't have taken keyboarding if I hadn't been forced to at the age of 8. I hated keyboarding classes. I am so glad I took them now. I hated doing boring research projects and looking crap up on Yahoo's Directory. I love that I have a basic understanding of how to rate and investigate a website's trustworthiness. Mfers don't even look at the "About" section anymore.