Re: [Usability] Chabada's Suggestions

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Jun 26, 2006, at 7:49 PM, Joachim Noreiko wrote:
> ...
> --- Reinout van Schouwen <reinouts gnome org> wrote:
> ...
> > You are assuming that people read such messages. In reality, 
> > unfortunately, they don't.
>
> Yes, they often don't. But have to assume they do and plan our UI 
> around that assumption. Otherwise we'd have no messages at all, and 
> probably no user documentation either.
> ...

That's a long-term goal to work towards: alerts replaced by bug fixes 
and better design, and "user documentation" replaced by helpful help 
and better design.

But that's not the issue here. The issue is, given that there is an 
error alert, which alert text is better: "Nautilus could not open the 
file because the filetype is unknown", or "&operatingsystem; cannot 
play MP3 files, because some countries allow software patents and Free 
Software cannot pay patent licenses".

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/