Great anecdote, Sharon! Certainly shows how important it is for people to question why things are 'always' done one particular way instead of another... the answer may surprise you. Working from a home office for so long, I'm pretty isolated in terms of seeing how others use technology day-to-day. Both my daughter and husband, however, use their own self-taught tricks and techniques, some of which are extremely different from my methods and some of which I've copied. 

One CIO I spoke with a year or two ago spent time/money on creating cheat sheets for Excel, PowerPoint, etc. for his large hospital staff. He kindly shared the Excel sheet with me and I can see how his investment paid off: Don't recall the stats he told me, but employees' productivity grew because they got so much more out of all the office software, help desk calls dropped, and job satisfaction increased. These were professional-looking printed sheets, also available on the hospital's employee site. The tips came through observation and help-desk data.

Nice.. I didnt knew these kind of things can help IT or Technology in this kind of a manner. Should give it a try. Have a few sites to study and develop and sort out the issues.

Great point. I guess when you sit back and really think about old habits that were 'replaced' it makes a lot of sense. I remember something as miniscule as how I used to type before learning the infamous home keys method and replacing my old method with it; thus, now I type significantly faster. But, nevertheless, still a good example of replacing an old habit with a newer, healthier one as you mentioned.

@slfisher, that certainly is a fantastic example of old habits dying hard. It's interesting that they kept it going through the generations without giving any thought as to why they were doing it that way. But yeah, that most certainly is a prime example of human nature. The more interesting part is, now knowing the reason why, it could give her an edge on how to change things up and make it easier to cook but probably won't because it's easier to stick to the same routine.

What a great post.  I think it takes the persona concept to a whole new level.

A recent book "The Power of Habits" indicates habits can't actually be lost or removed from one's life. Instead, it's suggested to replace a bad habit with another one of healthier value.

Cutting out doughnuts and sweets in daily diets can't be done without replacing those calories with something else,  but substituting doughnuts with something healthier is a realistic solution.

Habits can't be changed, but just replacing a bad habit with a good one is a possibility.

Old habits do die hard, and while it's part of being human, it's also unfortunate. 'Habits' are one thing that most programmers or developers don't really take into consideration enough when they design a website. It really will help to use field observation to see what tweaks you can do to improve the site. I'm aware that this is more easily said than done.

Business is brutal, but then, what isn't?

watching other people use the computer. My daughter, for example. types something in a field, and then uses the trackpad to go to the 'next' or 'continue' button to click it, whereas I'll hit 'enter' to go to the next thing. 

Plus people get into habits and don't realize things have changed. It reminds me of the newlywed who was making a roast, and carefully cut it into two pieces before she put it in the pan. Her new husband asked why she did it that way, and she said, her mom had always done it that way. He still wanted to know why, so she called her mom and asked. Her mom said that *her* mom had always done it that way. So they called Grandma and asked, and Grandma explained that her pans were all too small for a roast to fit.

Good points about old habits dying hard. Although, even though it can provide job security for one individual, it could also be a way the company could save a good deal of money in whole by making changes. Sadly, it's a scenario that could result in someone losing their job, but perhaps to the benefit of others (a sacrifice I guess one could call it). Business is brutal, huh?