[thelist] User perception

Sarah Sweeney mr.sanders at designshift.com
Mon Nov 15 13:41:05 CST 2004


> Hence,  If I'm told I don't have an account my first reaction would be 
> "ok how can I create one then?" It's possible this is a learned 
> behaviour - it's that way on practically every other site, so people 
> expect it to be that way on yours too.

I would agree with you if this site were like "practically every other 
site", but it is not. It is the site of a very large NGO, where only 
authorized individual may post official content. Once in a while guests 
are encouraged to contribute, but not on a regular basis. And not once 
has anyone said, "I would like an account." They just try to log in and 
a surprised when they are told they don't have an account. Do you often 
try to login to sites where you do not have an account?

> The short answer, though, is that your system may simply be suffering 
> from a poor choice of terminology which the blink tag or other such 
> strong-handed tactics won't solve.

Unfortunately I can't show you the login form; if I could I'm sure it 
would be obvious that this is just a case of people not bothering to 
read the brief and clear instructions provided.

I agree that unusable forms are very common, but I think users being too 
lazy (or whatever you want to call it) to read instructions is probably 
even more common. I'm one of them - I don't know how many times I've 
installed a program and just clicked Next, Next, Next without reading 
each screen in detail... But I would not bother to email tech support 
for the program without taking the time to read the instructions 
carefully to make sure the problem was not something I had done or 
failed to do.

-- 
Sarah Sweeney  ::  Web Developer & Programmer
Portfolio  ::  http://sarah.designshift.com
Blog  ::  http://hardedge.ca


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