Technology Design & "Getting" what Normal People Want / Need

I just read this great blog article about technology, platforms, interfaces, the iPad, the future,  and "getting" what average normal users want...

See:
http://weblog.muledesign.com/2010/02/the_failure_of_empathy.php

Here is my reply to it:

This is a great article. And the comments are just as great.

I have been in IT since my first computer,  an Apple II Plus. I had one of the first Macs ever off an assembly line. I was head of IS R&D for a Fortune 400 company and single handedly spearheaded the idea of switching the entire company from IBM, DOS, and OS/2.... to this new thing no one had ever heard of.... It was called Microsoft Windows.  I knew it would "take off"... eventually. 

Here I am today, typing this from my Droid running Linux (Android).

I have always been an advocate for the "normal average person".  Just as normal people don't get programming - and they shouldn't need to...  Geeks don't get normal people.   The more geeky a person is, the less he can relate to average ordinary users.

One of my biggest passions in life is making technology "as easy to use as an elevator".

A second passion of mine is real true "extreme customer service"...

Both are very rare.

A third is FOSS.  Users DO care about what's open...... when it is explained to them that music can be copied TO their iThing, but not FROM it...  When they are told, no.  You cannot run porn apps on an iThing.  Why?  Because Apple says no.  You cannot make free calls and SMS using Google Voice app.  Why?  Because Apple says no.

Then they start to care.

Once they are burned.

Open systems will beat out closed proprietary Big Brother platforms like Apple and Microsoft.  Like the parable of the tortoise and the hare, it will take time....  But....

MARK MY WORDS

Just as I predicted, in the days of DOS, that...  "This Microsoft Windows thing is going to catch on!"

I have been predicting for years now:

Linux and other FOSS will surpass all closed and proprietary systems, in the long run.

And it already is happening.

I feel so strongly about all of this..... that I am starting my own company do do just that.  Providing a user experience,  "Easier than a Mac. Cheaper than a PC."  ...as we say.

Feel free to take a peek.  http://bredtech.com

Meanwhile,  who can tell me:

What's the state of the art in tablet hardware that can run Linux, Ubuntu,  whatever open...   that could be the hardware platform for the next Open "iPad killer" device...?

If you know, call me!

646-719-9000

Bruce Wagner

Posted via email from Bruce's Journal