RE: An honest usability engineer

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

I think it's _almost_ a chicken-and-egg situation. You're right about
the "king locked in a tower" situation. Another way I've heard it
phrased is "If the user can't find the info, as far as they're
concerned, it doesn't exist." But the site/help/manual has to suck
pretty bad if it is completely unusable to even the most motivated
users. On the other hand, if the content is AWOL, then even the most
brilliantly usable site/help/manual won't bring them back.

Content is king. It helps a _bunch_ if the king is friendly.

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

Virtue is its own revenge. -- E.Y. Harburg 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tracy Boyington [mailto:tracy_boyington -at- okcareertech -dot- org]

>It's a chicken-and-egg situation. As you said, they come back if they
found what they wanted in the first place. If the site is not usable (if
the content they want is there but they cannot find it), they will not
come back. Content may be king, but if the king is locked in a tower and
no one can get him out, he's rather useless.

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