RE: An honest usability engineer

Subject: RE: An honest usability engineer
From: "Jane Carnall" <jane -dot- carnall -at- digitalbridges -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 16:29:29 +0100

>Can I add to your inference, and generalize it to documentation in
>general?
>Content drives traffic. People go to a "site" (on the web, in a help
>file, or on a bookshelf) because of the content it is alleged to have.
>They come back if:
>a) They found what they wanted in the first place, and
>b) They have a reason to return.
>Usability influences both of those things, but content is king.

But a website has a problem that a bookshelf doesn't usually have (except
one where the books are piled every whichaway and there are old coffee mugs,
toy mice, and a couple of live cats all over it) and that a manual can
certainly have: not the CONTENT, but the ORGANISATION.

Right now almost every book I own is neatly stacked in a pile of unlabelled
cardboard boxes, 1 deep, 6 high, and 8 long, against the back wall of my
sitting-room. If I want to consult a book, I know it's in there - the
*content* is complete and correct - but *finding* it is such a pain that I
usually give up and go somewhere better organised. That stack of books in
boxes is a weighty argument that without organisation and access, content is
virtually useless.

Similiarly, there are several websites (www.lastminute.com is a perfect
example) that I never access any more. I know they have good content. But
they crash a lot, and they're so complex and heavy that by the time my 56K
modem has finished downloading one page, I'm bored: besides, I can guarantee
that the whole thing will crash at least twice during the half hour I spend
viewing half-a-dozen pages. I go somewhere else where the content may not be
quite so good, but access is far easier because the designers designed with
56K modems in mind, not broadband. (Though I've tried using
www.lastminute.com with broadband, and it's still not very accessible.)

Content is vital, I'd agree. But equally vital is access to the content.
Without it, King Content sits on the throne, ordering the tide back and
feeling the royal tootsies getting wetter and wetter in the silence.

Jane Carnall
Technical Writer, Digital Bridges, Scotland
Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and mine alone.


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References:
RE: An honest usability engineer: From: Roy Jacobsen

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