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Subject:RE: Username or user name (generalized) From:"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Apr 2005 02:20:09 -0400 (EDT)
> The rationale for this decision is that we are not obliged to follow
> the peculiarities, or parrot the mistakes, of the UI, and that our
> users will have no trouble making the connection between what
> we call a
> thing and what the UI shows. I acknowledge that our engineers are as
> inconsistent as anyone's, and that our users won't take long to catch
> on to--and might not even notice!--these subtle differences. I don't
> prefer the vagaries and errors of the UI labels. At the same time, I
> believe that not following the UI, even when it's wrong, is
> against the
> practice of every software company I know of or whose output
> I've seen
> (and I've seen a lot!). Further, my experience is that not following
> the UI, even when it's inconsistent, is a tech writer 101
> mistake that
> most writers and editors would "correct" without a second thought.
>
An observant user is going to stumble (or laugh at the incompetence of the
documentation people at your company), and I think that the lack of
awareness or concern for the user is the real problem. It makes no sense
on any level to do what your group is doing. In my opinion, they are not
doing it for professional reasons; they are doing out of rage at their
lack of power to affect the quality of the software itself. It's sad.
What they are doing is totally unprofessional; you are sane, but if you
want to remain so, better keep your eyes open. The economy is really
picking up.
--
Bonnie Granat
www.GranatEdit.com
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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