Thank you for bringing the car analogy into this discussion.
I got a new car one year ago. The Germans must have really thought about how their users use their cars, because I am perfectly able to do most*) of what I want to do without consulting a manual. The simple stuff like starting, accelerating, breaking and turning seems to follow established conventions so that I can spend my limited time on earth doing something else than consulting car instruction videos.
If most users were keenly looking at videos in order to understand how to start their new car, I would say that was a big "fail" on the designers of that car. If most people were able to get most of the things done without ever opening the manual, I would say that was a design win.
-h
*)Cars are becoming increasingly software-driven, and there are some quirks that I have been unable to solve. If anyone knows how to robustly bind BMW car key id to seat position preset, I would appreciate it. I.e. I want my key to cause the drivers seat to adjust to a 2 meter tall person, while the other key to move it to a 1.75m tall person.
Are you of the belief that you were born with the knowledge of how to start a car? Secondly, where does Lightroom break away from following established conventions for a RAW image workflow? I've used several options over the years including Aperture, Capture 1, RAW Developer, etc. There's not a dime's worth of difference when it comes to the basics. Sure there are subtle differences in the nomenclature and semantical references between apps, but an Exposure slider is still a slider.
Since when do you need to refer to learning materials to 'learn the simple stuff' for Lightroom? While some features and the RAW Process versions have changed a few times since 2006, you should still be able to handle the basics quite easily without investing any additional time and effort. Yes, new users, just like new drivers may have to consult the owner's manual or even view a video tutorial to lean how to start a car ... after all, they have never done this before. Same applies to software ... I have yet to see any RAW image software solution that can read the user's mind and apply those thoughts to achieve the desired outcome without any effort on the user's part. It's not mystical, magical powers from the ether ... it's computer application which requires input from the user. Hence the user needs to be aware of how to input their desires. That may require some effort on the end user's part until we do develop a computer that can read your mind.
The learning process does not advance purely through osmosis nor does it have to be a daunting, time consuming drudgery. You should not spend so much time and effort in building a straw man argument for your thesis that does not hold water in real world application.
