CHAPTER18Programmingfor Humans
My sense of user sympathy as a moral imperative (rather than just a way to sell more software) started when I heard a story from an Excel usability test. A woman came in to test the software. When she wasn't able to complete the assigned task, she actually broke down in tears. Ken Dye, the usability lab manager, told me he had to walk her around the idyllic Microsoft campus until she felt better. After that, we were always very careful to explain to usability participants that we were testing the product, not their performance, and we expected that they wouldn't be able to accomplish some tasks. Not that that helped. People feel miserable when they can't accomplish a task.
I was reminded of a story about the task ...
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