michael.dillon@xxxxxx wrote:
But given the number of messages to the list suggesting changes
and fixes, I thought it was reasonable to point out that there is
a better way, and it is documented here
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html>
and it is not expensive to do either in money terms or in terms
of time spent.
This is a lovely reference. It touts very small, incremental usability testing.
In the mid-70's, the popular email user agent, MSG, had the "Answer" command.
When working on a new user agent for Unix -- it was a predecessor to MH -- I
decided that that probably wasn't the right word to use for a general audience
and wanted one that was natural them. I went up to a few secretaries -- hmmm,
probably 5... -- and asked them something like "Someone sends you a message.
You want to send a message back to them. This means you ____ to them." Every
secretary immediately said Reply -- and frankly were a bit irritated, since
they thought the answer (pun?) was so obvious -- so that was the command name
I used.
Took about 30 minutes, mostly because I had to walk around to get to the
secretaries.
d/
--
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
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