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Subject:Re: Your opinions again, From:"Bonni J. Graham" <bgraham -at- ELECTRICITI -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 2 Jun 1994 11:05:18 PST
Marilynne writes:
"To most of us, a change in the appearance of the monitor is just another
page turned on the computer. Why not just say something like "on the next
screen choose XYZ"? What the user cares about is what they're going to do
on the next screen. They don't need trumpets to announce the change."
Probably not, but many of them DO need reassurance that they are on the
right screen before they go pressing any other keys. Using the
construction, "The XXX screen appears [which is accurate, and not
magical]", or "Press the Framis key to reach the YYY screen: (insert screen
picture in doc here)" can help alleviate user anxiety. BTW, the second
construction is my fave, because it places the onus of action on the user,
who is really the mechanism that makes the screen appear. I've watched
otherwise intelligent people freak out because they're not sure they're on
the right screen and they don't want to go further in case they "hurt
something."
Bonni
Bonni Graham
Manual Labour
Director, Region 8 Conference
bgraham -at- electriciti -dot- com
