Re: [Usability] User knowledge level setting

[Daniel Brodie <daniel brodienet com>]

> Many users, when presented with an interface that will hide 
> functionality from them, will tend to choose expert.  Users don't tend 
> to like the idea that their applications are hiding something from 
> them, or that the application thinks that they're too dumb to be able 
> to use all of the functionality in the application.

I would also like to add that many times a user uses an app on a novice
level, but once in a long while they need an advanced feature. So to use
it, they woul dhav eto switch to the advanced user mode, navigate an
interface they are not familiar with, find the feature they want to use,
and then bring it back to novice.

This is solvable using somthing like MS uses for dynamically changing
menus based on usage, but needless to say, that is a very bad idea for
many reasons.

Daniel Brodie