SV: [thelist] User perception

[M. Seyon]

Message from Andreas Wahlin (11/15/2004 11:07 AM)
><What kinds of things do folks have trouble with on the forms? Might be
>interesting to see if we can come up with ideas on how to 'foolproof'
>those bits.>

Read the book I mentioned in a previous email. "The Design of Everyday 
Things", Donald Norman.


>Well, I might have been slightly misleading. For the examcourse, the
>students should login and leave some info on what sort of exam work they
>intend to do, so we can find "guides/helpers" for them. Now the thing is
>that this is just some extra information for those who manage the course
>in question, they still have to apply for the course using the regular
>"I want to take that course"-system. This is clearly stated on the form
>page but of course some people miss that, or at least wonder whether
>this is the course application page or what the h*ll it is for anyway
>(which is also clearly stated at the beggining of the page).

Why is the form accessible to people who have not registered for the course 
in the first place? This is what your login screen should really be 
determining. If they're not registered they should never even see the form. 
They could, possibly, be given the option to "REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE" in 
its place.


>The other thing that frustrated me was instructions on how to obtain
>student login (userid/password) being displayed on the loginpage, that
>works pretty good. However, during a short time now we've had technical
>difficulties with the loginpage, so for the moment students can log in
>using only their "social security number" (approximations here), and
>just today I got a mail from a student asking why their password didn't
>work.

Why is there a password field in the form if it doesn't work? If you want 
me to enter my "social security number" the form should ask only for that. 
Not for a password.

>And I got quite frustrated, I mean, come on, if you fail to login, and
>there's some bold italic text just above the loginpage, perhaps there's
>a clue there! Heck, at least they find my e-mail adress which is in fine
>print in the page footer ... I'm ok with misreadings and
>misunderstandings, no matter how stupid, but when people don't make the
>slightest effort and don't even bother to read (or skim) the text on the
>page (it's a few lines, not even much) then I get frustrated.

Yes. You know what? People are stupid. Be thankful for it. It's the reason 
you, me, and the hundreds or thousands of others on this list have jobs. If 
everyone were as smart as you are, who the heck would pay you to develop a 
system that they could develop themselves?

Fact of the matter though is you are being paid, monetarily or otherwise, 
to develop a system that users will understand. Not to gripe about how 
stupid they are. Though you're free to do that once you've fixed the 
system. Which should not be a problem since you're ostensibly smarter than 
they are - seeing as you can understand the so-obvious system, and they 
can't. ;-)

This is quite an interesting thread you've started, by the way.

regards.
-marc

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