A really good article on software usability

[Jacques B.]

> Really?  What did he say that you found helpful?  I didn't see anything that
> impressed me at all.
>
> Anne
>

I have to agree.  More fluff for the media than any real value.  Some
of his arguments/statements are off the beaten path.  You addressed
that quite well in your follow up posting.  Another poster also noted
very appropriately that he is suggesting a one size fits all approach.
 But that one size should be his size.  Not yours, not mine, not the
author... you get the picture.

I took programming 20 some years ago.  Even back then they preached
using terminology familiar to the end user.  I don't expect that's
changed any.  If anything more effort has gone into that.  The author
of this article is from a different generation.  Ask people under 40
and you'll most likely find many of them find the currently
terminology intuitive vs "Throw away everything you've just done?".
Granted the author was making a point and not likely suggesting that
actual text I suspect.

That text does remind me of poor design in an application we had at
work some 5 or so years back.  When editing a document (in a DOS text
window - tells you how old the app was) you had to press CTRL-ENTER at
which time the prompt would say "Do you want to save your changes?".
If you pressed ESC instead of CTRL-ENTER the prompt was "Do you want
to lose your changes?"  Notice only one word in the difference, but it
makes all the difference in the world.  One of our guys lost 2 1/2
hours worth of typing because he hit ESC and then selected YES to the
prompt "Do you want to lose your changes?"  Of course it was
instinctive because normally he exited properly with CTRL-ENTER when
selecting YES would have saved his changes.

That illustrates the fact that common terminology is important across
all applications (and all features within an application as was the
case here).

He's complaining about this and that.  But I agree, take away the
feature that prompts you to save on exit and his next article (after
he's had to re-type it because he forgot to save on exit the first
time...) would contradict this one.

Jacques B.