RE: An honest usability engineer

["Roy Jacobsen" <rjacobse -at- microsoft -dot- com>]

Can I add to your inference, and generalize it to documentation in
general? 

Content drives traffic. People go to a "site" (on the web, in a help
file, or on a bookshelf) because of the content it is alleged to have.
They come back if:
a) They found what they wanted in the first place, and
b) They have a reason to return.

Usability influences both of those things, but content is king.

Regards,
Roy M. Jacobsen
Senior Editor, Documentation
Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions
One Lonetree Road
Fargo, ND 58104-3911
USA
rjacobse -at- microsoft -dot- com

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted,
then used against you. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Shaeffer [mailto:jims -at- spsi -dot- com]

>I think what Jared Spool sees is that sites which are "getting it 
>right" obsess about implementing what customers ask for. 
>They do not obsess about usability or about following some abstract 
>list of "maxims of good usability" provided by a usability 
>professional. 
>Possible inference:
>Traffic drives usability. Usability does not drive traffic.

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