cruel to be kind

Mena Trott reports about their presentation at Demo of Project Comet, which looks really interesting. But she asks a quetion:

Why do we think moms are so stupid? I ask this because of that “It’s easy enough for my mom to use” line that’s always thrown around.

They are not stupid. They are different. From what I learned when I trained women but also did support is this:

Men will try out things more often. If something breaks, they will look absolutly innocent and claim – really believing that – “I did nothing!”.
Women on the other hand are more scared, that something might break – and therefore do not even take the risk.

Men try to pose and build up their ego. And take risks, because they might get the alpha male. Women try to connect and make things work – a good result is not to be a leader (because there is no leader in those groups) but to get along with the rest.

Think out in the wild, hunting: You are not clever enough, you don’t come back. No deal, you where not meant to survive and at the same time be stupid enought to hunt down a mamut. You are in the cave, not clever enough? Endangering everybody, including the childreen and probably food. This still seems to apply today.

Which in general means: that women are more clever, and will live longer. In regards to technology, this is not about saying they are stupid. But meaning, that their needs have to be addressed differently.

For example making it clear for women, that what they just do is safe and meets their requirements. Convince them, that it is safe. In case of male persons, you normally just need to show a shiny object (or a women) to get them going.

Having the mommy test means: being so clear in your message and what this application does, that it is safe enough to put valuable things in it. Having an application so self explanatory, that you don’t need risky “let’s just try what this button does – uuups”.

As I like to say: Men love cars for what they represent. They don’t really need to be good. ;) Women just want to get the job done. Convince the women – and you have done a really good job. Same applies to blogs.

Tags: cruel to be kind