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Did anyone else read "Computers Stink" by Jack Bellis
and think he made a very good point? His main thrust,
when all is said and done, seems to be that, now more
than ever (with so many computer users having to use
so many diverse types of programs), self-documenting
interfaces are critical to the usability of an
application.
Sure, this information is far from new for most of us,
but it's pretty radical thinking for most of the
developers I've worked with.
But a strength of this book is the group of "action
summaries" at the end (and listed on the web at http://www.netaxs.com/~jbellis/stink.htm) for various
groups of people, including writers. It's worth a look,
and possibly worth distributing to your coworkers.
--
Kate O'Neill: Manager of Documentation
Cinebase Software
kate -at- cinebase -dot- com ... direct -at- 408 -dot- 568 -dot- 7343
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Danca
Of course, if software developers would give users better interfaces,
maybe we wouldn't need to worry so much about providing good
docs??