I'm not certain that's true. What I think has happened is that more people are living in ignorance of what their software could be doing.
Instead of the traditional rule of 80% of people using 20% of an application's functionality, we now have 95% of people using 3%. They aren't even aware that the other 97% exists, even if that functionality would be very useful to them.
Take Chrome, for instance. Much of the functionality is hidden away under a single menu, far on the right, that isn't even obviously a menu.
I've worked directly with a number of "average" people now who moved to Chrome because it was recommended to them by somebody else, but they didn't even know about its main menu. You wouldn't believe their surprise when they see that Chrome allows them to open multiple tabs or windows, or that they can zoom the page, or that they can print.
These aren't stupid people, either. They're accountants, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and other non-technical, but well-educated and intelligent, people. Some of them have been using computers for decades. But Chrome's poor UI design hid useful functionality from them, rather than making it obvious like traditional menus under a permanently-visible menu bar used to do.
Being unaware of Chrome's main menu, the users were also never aware of the keyboard shortcuts. Along with a highly-simplified toolbar, these prevented them from even realizing that Chrome could do anything beyond browsing a single web page at a time.
So while software today may be easier to use for typical people, I suspect that's only because it's giving them an experience that's extremely basic. These people will be very happy that Chrome's a fast web browser, but they'll silently be disappointed when they mistakenly think it isn't capable of printing a page, merely because the UI mislead them.
I've worked directly with a number of "average" people now who moved to Chrome because it was recommended to them by somebody else, but they didn't even know about its main menu. You wouldn't believe their surprise when they see that Chrome allows them to open multiple tabs or windows, or that they can zoom the page, or that they can print.
I'll suggest that these are not things "average" users do. They don't care about tabs and windows, they just deal with them when the site they are on opens them. If they need to print something, like an order confirmation on amazon.com, they use the "Print" button that's on the page. Or they might do a screenshot if they know how to do that. And then email it to themselves.
Instead of the traditional rule of 80% of people using 20% of an application's functionality, we now have 95% of people using 3%. They aren't even aware that the other 97% exists, even if that functionality would be very useful to them.
Take Chrome, for instance. Much of the functionality is hidden away under a single menu, far on the right, that isn't even obviously a menu.
I've worked directly with a number of "average" people now who moved to Chrome because it was recommended to them by somebody else, but they didn't even know about its main menu. You wouldn't believe their surprise when they see that Chrome allows them to open multiple tabs or windows, or that they can zoom the page, or that they can print.
These aren't stupid people, either. They're accountants, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and other non-technical, but well-educated and intelligent, people. Some of them have been using computers for decades. But Chrome's poor UI design hid useful functionality from them, rather than making it obvious like traditional menus under a permanently-visible menu bar used to do.
Being unaware of Chrome's main menu, the users were also never aware of the keyboard shortcuts. Along with a highly-simplified toolbar, these prevented them from even realizing that Chrome could do anything beyond browsing a single web page at a time.
So while software today may be easier to use for typical people, I suspect that's only because it's giving them an experience that's extremely basic. These people will be very happy that Chrome's a fast web browser, but they'll silently be disappointed when they mistakenly think it isn't capable of printing a page, merely because the UI mislead them.