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Re: The Myth of Discoverability

Subject: Re: The Myth of Discoverability
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>
To: Sherrill Fink <slfink -at- verizon -dot- net>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 12:47:22 -0400

Sherrill Fink wrote:

All,

My DH ran across this excellent article on the subject:

http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay26.htm

There is one aspect that the article overlooked. That's
discovering a Wrong Thing. The architect has made it
easy to discover a harmful action that to most people
resembles a desirable action. For example, you want to
move a file, and you can't find "move" but there is a
"trans" button. You believe it's "transfer" but it's
really transmogrify, and you try it and (lo and behold)
transmogrification is ghastly and irreversible.

For an actual possible example, imagine if a tool for
modifying the Windows Registry relied on discovery.
Oh, you've tried one, and it does, you say?

Fortunately most software lacks this vice, sometimes
due to pressure brought early in the design phase by
an alert and resourceful technical writer. (Neilson
unabashedly polishes his chest, then sadly remembers
that he came in on Project Egregious too late, and the
software went out flaws and all, and was rejected by
the users.)
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References:
The Myth of Discoverability: From: Sherrill Fink

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