I seem to remember that in an earlier post Robert mentioned that users will not always utililse an application as expected, for example, using a wiki as a project management tool.
When our company got a Confluence wiki I initially considered creating a space for a group of users but decided against it because there was no navigation menu. I later discovered there was a left navigation menu plug-in and saw other sites using the left nav with a Search above it. The position of the Search seemed so much friendlier than the remote default top right position so I had the space created with the left nav and "friendlier" Search. Shortly afterwards I discovered that the faster operators were using the Search to navigate the space and not bothering with the left nav. Indeed, I used the Search myself the same way - in their space though I generally used the left nav in my own space. Ironically, although it was the lack of a left nav that stopped me creating the space in the first place, I seriously thought of the possibility of removing it as perhaps a way to stop users wasting time drilling down looking for things when they could find it much more quickly with the Search. However, I feel sure users wouldn't have used the remote Search for navigation if the more friendly-placed Search wasn't there - partly because of its position and partly because its default is to search the whole wiki rather than the wiki space which makes it more cumbersome. What other ways have you experienced people using applications differently from expected? Regards, Petra ________________________________________________________________ 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
