A really good article on software usability

Anne Wilson cannewilson at tiscali.co.uk
Fri Jan 5 16:13:20 UTC 2007


On Friday 05 January 2007 15:21, Andy Green wrote:
> Anne Wilson wrote:
> >> Yes, that's the point.  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.
> >
> > <scream.......>  Where have I seen that idea?  Oh yes, in systems that I
> > won't use.
>
> Well, you use lightswitches presumably.  It is a good idea, but only if
> the device is understood to do one simple thing you can explain to
> someone that never saw it before in a handful of words.  If what it does
> is inherently complex, don't try shoehorn it into lightswitch semantics
> (ye height-challenged people are you listening).
>
Not the same thing at all.  Where the only options are on/off you can *only* 
reverse the current state.  I wouldn't want the switch to be making the 
decision for me as to whether I actually wanted to do that or leave it alone 
<g>

Where there is only one course of action - e.g. exit or no exit - then maybe 
you don't need any dialogue box.  Where there is the option to exit after 
saving or exit without saving I definitely want to be the one to choose.  *I* 
want to decide whether the change that caused the question to be asked is 
significant or not.

Anne
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