> It took about 10 years for my mother, a daily Windows user, to understand folders.
Are you really sure about that? I have a hunch the difficulty wasn't with the folders themselves, but rather the badly-designed navigation interface of the Open dialog, and where it's starting from.
I've found that understanding the folder concept is one of the easiest things for new computer users to grasp.
The Open dialog certainly caused a lot of trouble. Perhaps I should have said learned to use effectively rather than understand. The concept of hierarchical folders is not particularly challenging, but the practice of using them is usually a real pain for little upside. One of the main use of folders I see is people grouping their work by year, month, etc - what's the point when the file has that metadata anyway?
Are you really sure about that? I have a hunch the difficulty wasn't with the folders themselves, but rather the badly-designed navigation interface of the Open dialog, and where it's starting from.
I've found that understanding the folder concept is one of the easiest things for new computer users to grasp.