Is using the web too difficult?
When speaking with clients, with family, even with friends, it is still apparent that computers can (and possibly always will) confuse their users. There is a correlation, however between computer usage and net usage and often a user problem with the using the web (or a website) is due to a lack of understanding, experience and knowledge of computers and IT.
As web designers - as user-interface developers - this is a continuing mission: to strike a balance that both educates the user as well as allow the user to understand what you want them to do. All the meanwhile producing a website that is both innovative and original (by that I mean creative).
We all know someone who seems to understand one tiny element of the web, and know it really it well, yet their understanding of the rest is very limited.
A friend of mine, for example, knows Facebook, desktop and mobile version incredibly well. Give him a copy of Firefox, however, and he'll be lost.
My mother and I were walking passed a pub not long ago and she asked me a questions 'what's wiffy (sic)?'. I politely responded - that's WiFi.
However, in amongst all this, we must not forget that this mis- or simply non-understanding comes our value as designers, developers, SEO experts, managers and overall educators. (This is why we get paid).
On the flipside, however, a single user is not necessary representative of the views of others. Things like scrolling (which around 5% of people are bothered about), shows itself as "important" in projects every now and again. This is always a shame, because reducing the website's height to remove scroll bars for most readers often compromises on much more important things like great content or a call to action.
Consider this: "But for the most part, it is often about keeping it simple. The hardest challenge of all is originality and creativity through simplicity: having the understanding to take the lowest common denominator in usability and still making it work. "
While that might be an extreme view that is rarely implemented, it is a warning that if a website isn't usable to the maximum amount of people, is is missing a trick?