I was amazed how thick I am.

BBC News - The Cambridge lab where they test how elderly people use technology

Obviously this is a bit naff - if you did this to 18 year olds you would get the  same kind of results. If you have ever put new technology in front of a user you get the same kinds of responses as seen here.  But the quote 'I am amazed how thick I am' does remind you how much people are willing to blame  them selves not the technology.

There is also a good example of people taking concepts from one technology ( pressing harder) and apply to  another. Initially there was a huge amount of pressure to make computer things like 'real world' things so a form of mimesis (imitation of other things, the use of metaphor) which gave rise to  skeuomorphic design (imitation for the sake of imitation)  - this gave you the calculator that looked like a calculator.

When we had a generation of kids grow up with the technology ( about the same time the web came along ) we got interfaces which broke free of metaphor. Or rather they became their own kind of metaphor - we see different kinds of buttons but still see them as buttons. We forget so much we have learn't' about computer interfaces on their own terms.  So when we push them at people who have never seen a computer before we see who much we 'know' about computers which out knowing we know a huge.

What I did like was the equivalent of the fat-suit for old age. Making you experience what it is like to be old.
Which  Inpires me to built a age/dyslexia proxy - takes a website and renders it as an old or dyslexic person might see it.