A really good article on software usability

[Tim]

On Fri, 2007-01-05 at 08:23 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
> For a lot of things, software should work like an appliance.  If the
> thing that needs to be done can be predicted, just do it without
> offering any choices.  Doesn't work for everything of course...

Therein lay the rub...  That approach is often applied to things that do
get used in different ways.

One my pet peeves is inadequate explanations.  For instance, I never use
the "synchonise" option on various software, because it doesn't explain
what's going to happen.

Are the files that are not on the server going to be wiped off the
client, so they're the same?  Or vice versa?  Are the two going to be
made so that they both contain the same, adding what's missing on the
opposite?

To any software author putting a "synch" feature in, bloody well explain
what yours is going to do!  I've seen applications work either way, and
you end up losing data.

The Evolution mail client is a classic case of next to bloody useless
documentation.  The guide rarely gives more information than you can
work out for youself from reading the legends in the GUI.  And fails
miserably at explaining what isn't self explantory in the program.