Are Lawyers Acting Like Elderly Aunts?
A few months ago my 81 year old aunt asked me to help her with emails on her laptop. She had finally succumbed to years of pressure from family members to get a computer. Now she could be included more in the family conversations and picture swapping. She could easily keep in touch with loved ones across the country. But she still wasn’t using her laptop.
When I sat down with her, I discovered two main problems. First, she didn’t really understand some very basic concepts, like how the mouse worked. She had trouble remembering that she needed to point and click. Second, the interface was unfriendly to an elderly person. She couldn’t keep up with where the mouse pointed, and kept losing the cursor when it zipped across the screen. With a few adjustments, I slowed down the reactivity of her mouse and made the cursor bigger and bolder so her old eyes could keep up with it. Then I “co-piloted” with her as she sent some emails, gently reminding her what to do, until she had enough practice to fly on her own. […]