I honestly believe that there are some people who simply don't "get" hierarchical folder structures. And it's not a small percentage.
Years ago when Windows Explorer tree-views were all the rage our desktop app had them all over the place. And the number of support requests were phenomenal. We'd demonstrate the tree-view - expanding out folder nodes till you find what you want, the user would go "Oh that's how it works" and then a few days later would ring up with the same request. I think there's just some part of their brain that can't deal with the geometry of it or something.
You see a similar issue with recursion: it's never seemed particularly difficult to me. But there are, apparently, lots of fairly smart undergraduates who are taking a CS class who just can't grasp it.
A tree is recursive--maybe that inability to "get" hierarchical folder structures is somehow related to an inability to understand recursion?
I think it's the same sort of idea but at a lower level (as it were).
The (very) few times I've tried to explain recursion to non-CS-types have always been met with "I sort of get it" looks (meaning "we'll have forgotten in five minutes").
But there seems to be no pattern to the non-tech people who don't understand tree-views.
The only thing I've noticed is it might be maths-related - as people in the accounts departments invariably get trees straight away.
Years ago when Windows Explorer tree-views were all the rage our desktop app had them all over the place. And the number of support requests were phenomenal. We'd demonstrate the tree-view - expanding out folder nodes till you find what you want, the user would go "Oh that's how it works" and then a few days later would ring up with the same request. I think there's just some part of their brain that can't deal with the geometry of it or something.