Rant... please let me help you fix the user interface

[Mike Starr <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

Okay so I'm on a long-term contract assignment with a teeny-tiny little 
software company... three programmers and me. We're a captive division 
of a larger company but are almost totally independent.

Until I got here there hadn't been any documentation effort in almost 
six years and the product (a suite composed of five modules) had been 
altered dramatically from a primarily DOS-based product to a Windows 
version. It's a niche-marked product that's been holding its own in the 
marketplace but it's definitely dated looking and "clunky".

Ever since I've been here I've been making suggestions that, for the 
most part, have been accepted... standardizing terminology, applying 
naming conventions, etc.

However, there's a certain resistance to cleaning up user interface 
elements, especially to rewording field labels, button labels. As I 
approach each dialog box from a documentation perspective, that makes 
it an ideal time to consider whether any changes need to be made so I 
don't end up having to rewrite the manual.

One of the guys was revising a dialog box yesterday and because he 
added a button, he had to tell me about it. We talked about revisions 
to the text labels, field formats, tooltip text and statusbar text and 
we were pretty much in agreement that it could be clearer. I took a 
screen capture and modified it to show my suggested changes and gave it 
to him. I think he didn't want to do it because it would've involved 
rearranging the location of the controls on the dialog box, not just 
changing the text (the text changes I suggested would've required more 
room). So anyway, it didn't happen. I even went as far as going into 
the programming environment, making a copy of the file for the dialog 
box, making the changes and saving it with a different file name so I 
don't inadvertently screw something up. If I do all of the work, it 
should only take a couple minutes for to check it out, plug it in and 
recompile the code. Took me a half-hour or so to tweak the dialog box 
but because of my graphics skills I probably took less time to do it 
than the programmer would've.

But they don't want to do it... the senior guy in corporate that we 
report to told our boss to not mess around with that sort of stuff. 
Just heads-down programming <arggh>.

So how do I sell the concept that making the text and button labels 
easier to understand and fixing the appearance of things not only makes 
the product easier for the customer to understand and reduces the 
number of support calls but also makes it easier to sell the product, 
too??

Mike
-- 
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
Technical Writer   -   Online Help Developer   -    Website developer
Graphic Designer    -    Desktop Publisher   -       MS Office Expert
Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
Email: mike -at- writestarr -dot- com      -      Web: http://www.writestarr.com




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