[thelist] User perception

Andreas Wahlin Andreas.Wahlin at ufl.gu.se
Mon Nov 15 07:14:09 CST 2004


This is perhaps a bit of a philosophical question ...
I have this form, that you log into. On the login page are instructions
on what userid/password to use, and on the form input page are
instructions on how to fill out the form. Still users mail/phone
questions about how to proceed, some claiming that instructions are
scarce, and when I say "there's the text answering your question", they
go "oh, ok thanks".

Now, is this always so? Is it impossible to make it so that everyone
follows and read instructions? The bulk of the users seem to get
everything just fine, but there are exceptions. 

The instructions are not hard, it's that they don't take the time to
read the text on the page (and it's not much). I suppose this actually
shocks me, which probably shows my complete immaturity :)

This falls I suppose under HCI and GUI study, but I was more interested
in your spontaneous reactions and whether any of you feel the same
things.

<tip author="Andreas Wahlin" type="Super DragAndGo Firefox Extension">
This plugin lets you select and then drag&drop it at an empty space
(somewhere on the page) to either search for that text using your
favourite search engine or to go to that adress if it's a good URL. 
Get it from
http://s87609139.onlinehome.us/7001.html
</tip>


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