Re: Warnings
Your exactly right Archie. If you can think up a way to dangerously use a
product, someone already has done so. I would definitely add a warning to an
existing publication, even if only one person came to harm by using the
product in a careless way. Not only is it good due-diligence, it is a safe
bet someone else will do the same thing, if not so advised.
The problem is, of course, that more warnings do not lead to more warning: When there is one warning, people may read it (if it is prominently placed and reasonably short and clear). When there are a dozen, an everyday item such as a mobile phone or an iron, people are likely to read none of them.*
Moreover, people learn. After reading their umpteenth useless warning, they will learn that warnings on products are a waste of time to read. So, in a way, bizarre warnings clog the communications channel to the user and prevent serious and important warnings from getting through.
This means that, paradoxically, more warnings can result in less safety.
Regards
Jan Henning
* We recently wrote maintenance instructions for a network device that have, on the insistence of the manufacturer, something like eight pages of warnings and general guidelines, among them such beauties as "make sure the work area is well-lighted". The documentation is intended for professional network administrators and covers only module exchange - the same procedures you perform when you swap graphics cards in your PC. I'd be extremely surprised if anybody reads these instructions.
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Jan Henning
ROSEMANN & LAURIDSEN GMBH
Am Schlossberg 14, D-82547 Eurasburg, Germany
Phone: +49 700 0200 0700, Fax: +49 8179 9307-12
E-Mail: henning -at- r-l -dot- de, Web: www.r-l.de
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