[WikiEN-l] Usability

[Geoff Burling]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005, Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:

> ABCD wrote:
> > Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people
> > are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page,
> > although they can find the edit links for the sections.  Should
> > something be done about this?
> >
>
[snipping several suggestions]
>
> Read http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ for a laugh and resign ourselves to
> the fact that no matter what we do, some people will NEVER "get it"?
>
I've spent two years doing phone support, & I can attest that you are
closer to the truth than you might think.

One of my fellow workers did support for Berkley Software's AfterDark
screensaver program for the Mac. One day he had to vent about the
people who called for assistance. "The instructions are on a 5x7 card!
The Mac is the most user-friendly interface ever invented! How the #$%@!!
do people manage to get it wrong?"

I could tell a lot of stories like this, but most of the true tales
aren't funny, & most of the funny ones I sometimes suspect aren't true.

Geoff