Re: Rant... please let me help you fix the user interface

[John Garison <john -at- garisons -dot- com>]

Reminds me of one of my favorite rants against stubborn developers ...

Many many years ago while at Wang Labs (makers of the first widely 
popular word processing systems), I had a situation. They had added 
arithmetic functions to the word processor so that secretaries and 
typists (I said this was a long time ago) could add up columns of 
numbers. To do so, they pressed Control+M (M for Math) and then got the 
prompt:

    Operand:

I went to the lead programmer and said that, since our audience was 
secretaries and typists, it might make sense to consider changing the 
wording of the prompt. I admitted that, although a lowly liberal arts 
graduate, I couldn't remember if operand was the sign or the number, and 
our target audience might not even know that much.

His reply: "No. O_P_E_R_A_N_D_colon is eight characters. Eight bytes. 
One word. It's accurate and it results in compact code. I'm not going to 
change it."

It stayed. Not 5 years later, Wang had gone from over $1billion in 
revenue to zero. Not that this had anything to do with it, mind you ....


My 2¢,

John G






wendy_lewis -at- goodyear -dot- com wrote:
>  Top of the list is the "Submit Query" 
> button, which they won't change to Go, Search, or even Execute, because 
> "that's what it's actually doing". Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.