Macs are not idiot proof…

I just now got proof that Macs are no easier for stupid people than PC’s.  I got a call from a customer just a few minutes ago.  They had lost the Safari Icon from the Dock Bar at the bottom of the screen.

The customer asked, “Is that because the internet is down?”.
I said, “No, it’s just that your Safari has become undocked.”.

The customer then asked, “What does that mean?”, referring to my use of the word “undocked”.

I proceeded to explain that the bottom bar was The Dock, and that they can “dock” icons to it, or removed them from it as they like.  Then I gave to the customer my instructions to put it back on the Dock bar.  The instructions were very clearly to click on Applications (which I had to have them read every icon to find it).  Then find the Safari Icon.  And finally “Click and Drag” the icon to the dock bar, and let it go.

The response I got was “I’m sorry that’s too far over my head.  I don’t speak the language.”  So much for Macs being designed for ease of use.

Come to find out, this customer has had this Mac for a couple of years now.  And still hasn’t figured out what The Dock is.  Or where to find all of their Applications, as the customer has never clicked on that icon before.  This just goes back to my previous post, if you want to do what you want it to do, you need to learn.  Makes me wonder if this customer bothers stopping at red lights as perhaps they’ve never used that pedal on the left before or that it’s called the brake pedal.

Build something to be Idiot Proof, there will undoubtedly be a bigger idiot to use it.