My point of view on this discussion is that I think a computer should be designed to be as easy to operate as the automobile - it’s very close to being almost as essential. There are people who get along without one just as there are people who manage without a car (and some of these because they lacked the “mental models” for driving), but we all have to get around. I use and depend on my computer 24/7, for accounting/banking, shopping, cooking, education, research, communication, pleasure, creative pursuits, documenting. Please keep me in mind when you design!

Unless your target audience is clearly defined as geeks, you’re well-advised to at least try and make your app/site/whatever usable by those with far less understanding than yourself.

The simple fact of the matter is that as technology reaches the masses designers must recognize that a greater portion of users are users because they have to be, not because they want to be, and all they really want to do is accomplish their task and go home in their 1978 Ford Pinto. People can’t design for early adapters any more, because most software has gone beyond that stage.

You would be surprised how much universal design benefits everyone (both on-line and off line).

At the recent IA summit, a speaker suggested we should design for good behaviours, not good causes.

I relate this to:
Universal design = designing for good behaviours;
Dumbing down a UI = designinig for good causes.

I think that this is an area of design worth exploring. Like Baldur said with the book analogy, not every book can be a Dick and Jane book. However, that doesn’t mean that we should eliminate children’s books.

That is an excellent point and answers Alexa’s point above it better that I ever could.

In the same respect, we don’t need to make every design for the computer-illiterate, but that doesn’t mean that we should never design for them. Technorati can probably get by assuming a certain level of literacy because it’s a website that caters to a technical audience. Now look at WebMD.com. It’s incredibly over-complication and even a little tricky for me to navigate. It was difficult to watch my great aunt, who’s a college graduate and quite sharp, almost in tears trying to find out information about her heart condition.

In the end it’s all about understanding your entire audience not just a 5 person focus group.

I think it depends on the product you’re putting out, too, and who you want to reach. Say you’re designing an application to help diabetes patients manage their health. Should only the computer-literate be able to benefit from such a tool?

You don’t know how an engine works but you know how to drive. I don’t know how to bind a book, but I like to read them. Lacking in specialisation isn’t illiteracy. To conflate those two is a category error.

Illiteracy is a lack of education — ignorance — which prevents a person from participating in a basic activity and many everyday situations.

How about putting it this way: The car industry’s goal shouldn’t be to design cars for those that can’t drive. Those who can’t drive are by definition not a part of the car industry’s market. They have to resort to other transportation industries for their needs.

The computer illiterate will have to get their information from other media and, like the traditionally illiterate or those who cannot drive, when they have to deal they will have to ask someone to help them.

The computer illiterate are, by definition, not a part of our industry’s market.

Unless they pull themselves out of their ignorance, if you think that’s likely.

When I hear people say things like “we should not design for the computer illiterate”, I think of how profoundly “illiterate” I am in terms of so many other things:

I am almost completely ignorant as how television actually works, but I like to watch TV. I am also glad that Apple and Microsoft didn’t make me understand how an Intel Core Duo chip works just so I can do something SIMPLE like design a website. I have no damn idea how an internal combustion engine actually works–though I rely on them every day. Frankly, I am almost totally illiterate in terms of so many things I rely on on a daily basis it’s shocking. Thank goodness no other industry holds it against me.