technofluency and lack thereof

[darkoshi]

I'm working from home, and Forestfen calls me about a computer problem she is having. She is trying to listen to a webcast presentation, but it isn't working. So I disconnect from my work network and connect to her computer with VNC. The webpage she has open shows a window with play, pause, and stop buttons. The buttons are labeled with the standard icons for play (triangle pointing to the right), pause (2 parallel bars), and stop (square), rather than any text. I click the play button. Forestfen exclaims that it is now working, and that she didn't know that she had to click on *that* button, and that she had instead been clicking on the square. I wonder if there was any hover text over the buttons that would clue the user to knowing what each one did... I didn't think to check that.

Moral: Never assume the users of your web application will know what those icons mean, even if they are used in the real world too.

Comments

[ninox.livejournal.com]

Assume nothing! I have an enquiry the other day from some one failing to use an e-book. They never thought that it might help to maximise the window.