A really good article on software usability

[Anne Wilson]

On Monday 08 January 2007 07:00, Tim wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-01-05 at 10:18 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
> > Does your refrigerator ask you every time you are nearby if you would
> > like it to keep your food cool or not?  Instead of prompting every
> > time for whether or not you'd like to save or lose all your work,
> > why don't programs have a default for how many revisions you'd
> > like it to keep and always save all changes unless explicitly told
> > to exit without saving?
>
> Too much like that disastrous re-arrange your mess of the start menu on
> Windows (which wouldn't be needed if the thing was organised, in the
> first place).
>
I certainly wouldn't quote fedora's menu, at least under kde, as a good 
example.  As for the windows one, I've often rearranged it and never had it 
revert.

> Users find, after a little while, that it's changed on them.  That's
> disconcerting, in itself.  They also have to go around hunting for
> things used occasinally, instead of just being able to find it.
>
> > If it ends up saving work you wanted to throw away, then you'd have an
> > after-the-fact way to fix the unusual case instead of being bothered
> > every time selecting the obvious choice.
>
> That's not *too* bad, but the opposite is unacceptable.

Agreed

Anne
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