Kelly Cochrane wrote:
> > Are you feeling old? If not, consider this:
> > They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era.
Lucky them. They'll still learn about his 'achievements' when they get
their student loan bills at graduation.
> > Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
*chuckle* Same for me, and I was at the former :P
> > They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
Neither do I *grin*
> > They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.
Now this is truly a shame.
> > They never heard the term "Where's the beef?".
Good for them. Maybe students starting in 2010 will have never heard
"Where do you want to go today?" ;)
> This reminds me of an experience I had when I was trying to make time
> with a particularly attractive young women only to find out that she
> did not get the reference I made to Ed Sullivan; she had never heard
> of him. I had to break off pursuit in a state of utter despondency.
Probably for the best. You weren't alive when Orson Welles made movies,
but you probably know who he is. Suggests to me the flaws ran deeper
than desired ;)
>
> Anyhooo, my point here is that we often talk about designing for
> different cultures and different physical "capacities." However, a
> more easily overlooked, but possibly more important consideration may
> be that of designing for different generations. A reference to what we
> believe to be a common touchstone, may be the cause of
> miscommunication.
*chuckle* Not entirely sure it's generational. Education comes more to
mind. I can go toe-to-toe with my grandmother on most events in the
1940s, and can probably cover more fringe stuff from my mom's generation
than she can. Most of my friends tend to be of such varied interests as
well . . . a BA (and perhaps growing up with Trivial Pursuit) will tend
to do that to you.
On the other end of the spectrum, had lunch with a woman yesterday to
discuss database design and the convergence of the internet and
grassroots marketing strategies. Based on appearance (quite
attractive), general background, computer knowledge, interests she spoke
of and a reference to a workout routine that would kill me within the
week, I pegged her in her early 40s (at latest) and was very impressed
by her broad command of things people actually *in* our field don't even
get.
Then she made a passing reference to the fact that *after* she finished
her PhD, she had worked on the McGovern presidential campaign. I think
my eyes actually reflected the BSOD that occurred in my mind as I worked
through the math on that one while trying to continue the conversation.
(turns out she's 54)
Interest (a product of education), IMHO, is where the thing lies,
regardles of age. Hence my advocacy of clients doing user research at
Walmart (and getting outside their normal circles of influence): "you
want to see who your website customers are going to be and why we need
to design it a certain way? come with me to walmart saturday morning
and let's sit in the computer section and watch them ask questions for a
few hours while they're buying their new computers . . ."
;)
B
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