I think a lot of noise is made about developers not being able to discern between their needs/desires and their target user's needs/desires, And the noise is generally stereo-typical in nature.
The ability to mentally assume the role of the person one is writing software for is not impossible, nor is it improbable, for developers to be able to do. I also think the issue is not one of a tradeskill choice, but one of a desire/ability to be empathic in software design choices. And in many cases, ability will follow desire. Yes, I know... that's a tangent, but nevertheless... - Calvin ----- Original Message ----- From: "LI, Chunshen (Don)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 2:05 PM Subject: Usability > This is not a new question, however, IMHO, it won't > hurt to talk about it again. > > In my view, some assumptions are made by developers > when they think of an application's usability, for > instance, for data validation, when a developer's help > doc says something like "You need to enter an integer > for this entry/field", the assumption is that the user > knows what an integer is (any one who went to primary > school knows what an integer is). Now, one may argue > that "You need to enter some number for this > entry/field" may sound easier to average user's ears. > I would beg to disagree here. "Some number" could be > 728, or it could be "728.25" while the later would > fail because the data type is set to INT. > > Secondly, I think presentation and usability are > closely tied together, and depending on the nature of > the application, presentation may need to be highly > polished or it need not to. For instance, a fancy car > web site, presentation is certainly very important > while a data admin application/utility for just two or > three users does not need fancy presentation at all, > e.g. http://68.32.61.40/datadata/DataMan.cfm > > What's your thought(s)? > > > Li, Chunshen (Don) > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
