The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think

post by morganism · 2016-12-06T22:42:27.326Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 3 comments

This is a link post for https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/

3 comments

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comment by morganism · 2016-12-06T22:45:12.095Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

"There is one more difference between you and the average user that’s even more damaging to your ability to predict what will be a good user interface: skills in using computers, the Internet, and technology in general. Anybody who’s on a web-design team or other user experience project is a veritable supergeek compared with the average population. This not just true for the developers. Even the less-technical team members are only “less-technical” in comparison with the engineers. They still have much stronger technical skills than most normal people."

paper w stats

http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/skills-matter_9789264258051-en

comment by username2 · 2016-12-09T19:38:06.746Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

So I have a stupid question. How do I find out what percentage of the emails sent by John Smith last month were about sustainability? Is there any convenient way I don't know about?

Replies from: Lumifer
↑ comment by Lumifer · 2016-12-09T21:13:46.256Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Assuming they means "percentage of emails sent by John Smith to you" and assuming you have a reasonable email client, it's should work like this:

  • Run a search of all emails from John Smith during the last month. Count 'em.
  • Add another term for the search: the word "sustainability". Scan what you got, discard what you don't want, count what's left.
  • Divide the second number by the first number.