Typical User Problem
-
"Yes, I hit the '4' key on my keyboard and what I really need to happen is have the '3' come up on the screen." "What happens when you need a '4'?" "Oh, I almost never use the '4'" "But those times you do need the '4', what should happen then as you'll only be getting a '3' when you press the '4' key?" "I didn't think of that." "We could have the '4' key produce a '4' on your screen and have the '3' key produce a '3' on your screen. How about that?" "Yes, but that doesn't solve my original problem."
Switch the keys on the keyboard. It solved the original problem, although it created another one. :sigh:
Signature construction in progress. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Damn you have the perfect signature - CBadger
-
... or implement general order 24.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada."A little drastic don't you think, especially as we're on the same planet. I'm happy with the picture of this "user" getting more irate each time he presses 4.
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
-
"Yes, I hit the '4' key on my keyboard and what I really need to happen is have the '3' come up on the screen." "What happens when you need a '4'?" "Oh, I almost never use the '4'" "But those times you do need the '4', what should happen then as you'll only be getting a '3' when you press the '4' key?" "I didn't think of that." "We could have the '4' key produce a '4' on your screen and have the '3' key produce a '3' on your screen. How about that?" "Yes, but that doesn't solve my original problem."
1 , 2 , 4 , 8 ...
-
1 , 2 , 4 , 8 ...
11, 23, 58, 13 ... EDIT: Wow, nobody caught it? I'm disappointed in you guys...
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
11, 23, 58, 13 ... EDIT: Wow, nobody caught it? I'm disappointed in you guys...
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
1 , 2 , 4 , 8 ...
Ab, Bb, 4b, Db ...
-
A little drastic don't you think, especially as we're on the same planet. I'm happy with the picture of this "user" getting more irate each time he presses 4.
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
Ooops. I must have meant general order 23. :-)
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." -
"Yes, I hit the '4' key on my keyboard and what I really need to happen is have the '3' come up on the screen." "What happens when you need a '4'?" "Oh, I almost never use the '4'" "But those times you do need the '4', what should happen then as you'll only be getting a '3' when you press the '4' key?" "I didn't think of that." "We could have the '4' key produce a '4' on your screen and have the '3' key produce a '3' on your screen. How about that?" "Yes, but that doesn't solve my original problem."
I've got a funny feeling that the user has to press the 4 key to select an option that reads "3". These stupid mortals just don't understand zero-based lists.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
11, 23, 58, 13 ... EDIT: Wow, nobody caught it? I'm disappointed in you guys...
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)Don't forget to take away the number you first thought of.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
... or implement general order 24.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada."Nah, precedent shows that it's more effective to just destroy the computer.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
I've got a funny feeling that the user has to press the 4 key to select an option that reads "3". These stupid mortals just don't understand zero-based lists.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Remember than 1 and 4 are adjacent on a numeric keypad, but 3 ia waaaayyy over there. :doh:
-
"Yes, I hit the '4' key on my keyboard and what I really need to happen is have the '3' come up on the screen." "What happens when you need a '4'?" "Oh, I almost never use the '4'" "But those times you do need the '4', what should happen then as you'll only be getting a '3' when you press the '4' key?" "I didn't think of that." "We could have the '4' key produce a '4' on your screen and have the '3' key produce a '3' on your screen. How about that?" "Yes, but that doesn't solve my original problem."
Seriously - this is a real user problem? :doh: and this person probably drives too.
Charlie Gilley Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
-
Nah, precedent shows that it's more effective to just destroy the computer.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
"Yes, I hit the '4' key on my keyboard and what I really need to happen is have the '3' come up on the screen." "What happens when you need a '4'?" "Oh, I almost never use the '4'" "But those times you do need the '4', what should happen then as you'll only be getting a '3' when you press the '4' key?" "I didn't think of that." "We could have the '4' key produce a '4' on your screen and have the '3' key produce a '3' on your screen. How about that?" "Yes, but that doesn't solve my original problem."
For the sake of humanity, please throw this user in front of a bus moving at high speed.
Software Zen:
delete this;
-
Seriously - this is a real user problem? :doh: and this person probably drives too.
Charlie Gilley Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
-
For the sake of humanity, please throw this user in front of a bus moving at high speed.
Software Zen:
delete this;
-
No, this wasn't the actual problem. The real problem was that the user couldn't understand why deleting a record caused it to no longer show up on reports. I went with the 3/4 problem because I didn't think anyone would believe the actual problem.
You know, you just can't make this stuff up. Years ago, my Dad worked at IBM. Every year he was on the team to come up with the division budget. At home, we just hid during that month. He got so fed up with the process that he wrote a program Algol or apl or something to act as a rudimentary spreadsheet - it let everyone punch in their groups numbers and rolled them all up. Life was good, it worked. First user.... stuck.... calls my dad: User: "Hey Chuck, your program doesn't work." Dad: "Okay, what's it doing?" User: "Nothing, it just sits there." Dad: "What's on your screen?" <-- before the days of PCs User: "It's asked for my username, I typed it, but now it's just sitting there." Dad: "Hmmm, oh, I know what's wrong... press return." User: "Hey! That fixed it." And this was at IBM.....
Charlie Gilley Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
-
And the dialog should be:
Ambiguous key press detected! _ [] X
Windows has detected that you pressed the "4" key when you probably
needed a "3". If you didn't not want a "3" press "Yes". If you wanted
a "4", press "OK". Otherwise please wait and you will be put through
to an operator.\[ABORT\] \[RETRY\] \[CANCEL\]
If you can get an icon with "Clippy" on it, so much the better. Needless to say, all buttons should bring up a dialog saying "Are you sure?" and with the buttons [PREVIOUS] & [RESTART WINDOWS] only.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
And make sure the buttons come up in random order so that the user has to read them every time before clicking it.
OriginalGriff wrote:
Windows has detected that you pressed the "4" key when you probably needed a "3". If you didn't not want a "3" press "Yes". If you wanted a "4", press "OK". Otherwise please wait and you will be put through to an operator. [ABORT] [RETRY] [CANCEL]
-
No, this wasn't the actual problem. The real problem was that the user couldn't understand why deleting a record caused it to no longer show up on reports. I went with the 3/4 problem because I didn't think anyone would believe the actual problem.
I hate to be a spoil sport, but often something needs to be deleted for operational purposes, but the history of its existence needs to be kept for reports of past activity. There are a number of ways to handle this, such as marking the record for deletion using a flag for that purpose, but not really deleting the record. Then any queries for currently active records need to take the delete flag into consideration. Or you could maintain a separate history table for reports, copying the record into it before deleting it from the active table.
-
Ooops. I must have meant general order 23. :-)
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada."