Re: Document Post Analysis

[Isaac Rabinovitch <isaacr -at- mailsnare -dot- net>]

I once worked for a software company that had a fully-equipped usability lab, run by a psychologist. 
 She ran a short series of tests on some of my web-based documents, having end-users attempt to 
navigate them while we watched through one of those two-way mirrors. Very, *very* instructive. 
Unfortunately, my team lead had his own ideas about document usability, and wasn't interested in 
this kind of input.

Not many companies do this sort of thing -- it's expensive as heck. Also, you have to be intelligent 
in responding to negative feedback. If you try to "fix" every little complaint, you'll end up with a 
lot of silly gimmicks that actually make your product *less* useful. (That's why there are so many 
mediocre movies these days -- Hollywood is a slave to this kind of testing.) Use this kind of 
feedback to help you discover your mistakes, not as Perfect Critic you have to satisfy. You can't 
completely please everybody.

Anachie Shakespear wrote: