When People See Words And Give Up

A kid brings me his laptop, saying he’s trying to launch a program, but a pop-up keeps blocking it. I take a look. The pop-up says:

Pop-Up: “This program cannot launch while [Other Program] is running. Close [Other Program] and try again.”

Me: “What happened when you tried that?”

Kid: *Gets embarrassed.* “Oh…I didn’t…”

So, I have him close the other program and try again. Magically, the problem goes away.

Later, a woman comes over and says she’s trying to log into a desktop, but it’s not working. I walk over and take a look, having her type in her username and password. She does so, and another pop-up:

Pop-Up: “Password must be changed. Click Continue to change password.”

Woman: “See! This keeps happening, I don’t know what to do.”

Me: *As politely as I can.* “Well, see here it says to change your password. So, let’s do that.”

I click ‘Continue’ for her.

Box #1: “Enter new password.”

Box #2: “Confirm new password.”

She is confused by the two boxes.

Woman: “What do I do?”

I had to point to each sentence before she would read them.

Later, a girl comes over and says the printer won’t release her job. I walk over to look at it. She enters her password, and the queue opens, displaying her print job. Then she stands there.

Girl: “See? It won’t do anything.”

I click the button that says ‘Print’. Her job releases. She is embarrassed.

Please. Please just read. Please read things on your screen before freaking out.