Two weeks ago I started working for a local IT business as a Technician, here’s what I’ve learnt.
People are really troubled by their computers, I would go as far to say the older generation are, on average, scared of them. They think that the computer is far more intelligent than it is - they often think it does things autonomously. They believe that it does things that are impossible for it to have done.
The fear is often caused by over estimation of the damage they might cause. Chances are they couldn’t loose their data if they tried. There’s a common misconception that computers are built with no safeguards.
People don’t understand their needs. For instance, if they think they get ‘a lot of email’ they assume they need a large hard-disk. In fact, all they really need is a small hard-disk. People still don’t understand common space requirements.
So there’s the observations. In terms of trends…
People want tablets but expected to pay a 10th of the price that they paid for their laptop. Or they bring in a 5 year old toshiba and expect a free tablet. Either that or want all their MS Office document in 'all the same places’. For those who don’t know, this is not possible!
People want new computers but want them to behave exactly like their old ones. There’s something good in keeping things similar, but please for the love of god don’t let that stop you seeing improvements in interfaces and designs!
People are happy to pay for your time out of their sight but not for your time that is their time also. Totally illogical, but is understandable - and somewhat amusing.
People seems to think that Mac and iPads are totally different. Macs are a rip off, iPads are the tablet bread and butter. This interested me. iPads are the most expensive tablets money can buy. Do people see them as better value than macs?
It’s been a very educational experience thus far, and not just about customers. There’s more to come on the topic of the IT trade.