Re: Usability testing

Subject: Re: Usability testing
From: Wayne Douglass <wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 13:58:26 -0700

At 02:15 PM 6/25/98 -0600, Geoff Hart wrote:

>At the simplest level, it's worth noting that anything you have
>trouble documenting is something that your audience will have trouble
>using.

Absolutely right. I once found myself writing an explanation of three or
four ways of printing a display, depending on the function, in a *Windows*
application. I told the developer, "This is Windows. Users want *one* way to
print." "But you can't print every screen," he replied. "That's what error
messages are for," I said. "If they can't print from the particular screen,
tell them that. Better yet, grey out the Print button and the menu item." To
his credit, he did it.

--Wayne
---------------------------------------------
Wayne Douglass phone: 408-542-2139
Verity, Inc. FAX: 408-542-2040
894 Ross Road mailto:wayned -at- verity -dot- com
Sunnyvale, CA 94089 http://www.verity.com
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