Re: Why oh why oh why

[Beth Agnew <beth -dot- agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>]

I think Nancy is echoing the frustration of many of us, techwriters who 
daily see products that do not meet customers' needs. It's frustrating 
when we know that there can be improvements; we even tell the powers 
that be what improvements to make, and yet we still have to put up with 
longstanding issues in products that we rely upon every day. It galls us 
more when we see a company, such as Microsoft, with virtually unlimited 
resources to fix the problem, and yet it does not. (Don't even get me 
started on IE7!)

As a profession, we are a resource that can help companies avoid or fix 
usability problems -- yet so few development organizations use us in 
that way, and often resist our efforts to advocate for the user. Along 
with customer support and training departments, we point out areas where 
customers have, and will have, problems with the product, but then we 
see management make decisions that go in a different direction.  No 
wonder we get a little testy from time to time.
--Beth