Confessions of a deceitful designer.. I work in the networking equipment domain. A couple of years back I was working on a building to building wireless bridge. A key aspect of the design was that the appliance is usually mounted on a roof or such inaccessible location with a single cable into the box which carries both management and normal traffic. This presents the issue in that unlike the kit found in a wiring closet, its not a simple matter of sending a technician to the box to reconfigure it, its always remotely configured. If the IP address & VLAN had to be changed, the admin would loose connectivity as both those elements are interdependent, change one and the networking configuration is broken because the other didnt match. And a box on your roof that you cant manage is a big PITA.
So, we implemented a temporary config state and a [Save Configuration] button, make all your changes then push the config in one go. Other products in the line such as indoor APs and wireless switches do not need this concept as they usually have a dedicated management connection, not possible with the b2b box. Later, usability testing on wiring closet devices showed some users looking for the Save function that was on the B2B box, resulting in a concern that the config was not being applied. So, now I have a fake button on wiring closet boxes that does nothing. Changes in the UI are applied instantaneously in most cases and admins can choose to click a Save Config button, or not. Usability Theater. I hope this doesnt mean I come back as a user in the next life for my sins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24028 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
