In the tech world, it's hard to believe that something as simple and well used as the "find" shortcut (CTRL + F on Windows, Command + F on Mac) is something that many don't know about. A survey conducted by Google recently concluded that 9 in 10 users don't know of the functionality, nor have they ever thought of it.
According to New Scientist, Dan Russell, Tech Lead for Search Quality and User Happiness interviewed a bus driver who was searching for a transportation rule for a test. Apparently, she was scrolling line by line through a 100 page website to find the answer. When asked "Why don't you use 'CTRL+F' to find it" she responded that she didn't know such a function existed.
Google proceeded to do a survey on this, and found that 90% of users had no idea. Stuff reports that Mark Pesce, a futurist and honorary associate in digital cultures at the University of Sydney blamed the lack of education of the feature, and cited the lack of being taught in companies or schools for the users' behavior.
Even users with experience seem to get caught out on this, with one comment on the article saying:
Um, I'm a web designer of 10+ years and even I didn't know about ctrl F (actually command F on a Mac) though I had long used a similar feature in a browser plugin (FireBug) *embarrassed*
The question remains, whose responsibility is it to teach users about features such as search, or how to use shortcuts? Schools? Companies? Older generations' children? Perhaps it should be down to the software itself to teach users at the end of the day.
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