Technological Changes Require Training and Communication

Every technological change requires a little communication and training. There are always people who think they’ve designed a completely intuitive interface but that’s rarely true.

If you need some examples, check out these vintage videos:

Here’s one that helped people moved from operator assisted telephones to direct dialing. Yep, we had to train people on the difference between dialtones and busy signals. We still have folks who can’t tell the diff between the line busy signal and the trunk busy signal.

This one looks like a sound newsreel that was shown at the movies.

How To Dial A Telephone

And this one looks like one that was shown before talkies at the show:

How to Use the Dial Phone (May 29, 1927) (7 minutes)

And here are two parters of classroom sessions in movie style. My favourite is the old version of the smartboard!

I have to dial my own phone? part one

I have to dial my own phone? part two

And touch tone calling didn’t escape the treatment either: “Its the greatest thing since the wheel”

1971 – Touch Tone Phone Calling

1963 Seattle World’s Fair: Races between touchtone and dial

So, there you have it. We can’t belittle the larger population as they adapt to change. It just takes time, communication and training.

And in the library context it means our mobile apps are a bigger learning curve than switching to dial or pushbutton. Be realistic. Take time to communicate.

Stephen