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RE: Is the generic "you" implied in error messages?
Subject:RE: Is the generic "you" implied in error messages? From:"Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 11 Feb 2000 20:08:48 -0800
At 5:50 PM -0800 2/11/2000, Dawn Marie Oliver (Write Stuff) wrote:
>>You click the select the item. You press the Delete key. What should
>>happen at that point, a mysterious silence?
>I think what Chuck was trying to get at was this: that the user
>interface should be designed so that the user _cannot_ click the
>Delete button if the item cannot be deleted.
The Delete key is there on the keyboard. Software cannot "gray out" a piece
of the hardware.
I understand your point, and in general, good interface design calls for
making it impossible to make an error, rather than allowing it and
displaying an error message. Nonetheless, there are errors you can't
prevent the user from making by manipulating the software, and when that
happens, you need to let the user know what's going on. Removing the error
message in this case would be harmful; this was my point.
