slightly OT: preventing user stupidity

[Bill Campbell]

On Mon, Feb 07, 2005, Joe Chasan wrote:
>meaningless rant of the day:  how far do you go to prevent user stupidity?
>
>program:  Q.  Do you wish to post now? (Y/N)
>user: Y
>
...
>what to do?  obviously, the more questions you ask the more the user
>just answers by rote without thinking.  its not always appropriate or
>helpful to the end-user to have a corresponding unpost/undo routine.

I think you're on a hopeless quest, probably worse than Don
Quixote's attempts to conquer the windmills.

I ran into a problem with ``designers'' at overpriced furniture stores in
the D.C. area where (a) my software asked them to find an existing customer
by typing in something from their name or address, and (b) asked if they
really wanted to add a new customer if they didn't find one.  These people
would add new customers and orders even when they were already on the
system which required typing in all the info again.

Of course these same designers would enter orders as complete without
getting deposits which then generated orders for custom fabrics, colors,
etc.  Then when the customer decided on their fabrics, and paid the
deposit, the designers would re-enter it leaving the bogus order to arrive
shortly.  My guess is that the designers got paid their commissions when
the order was entered, and not penalized for the costs associated with the
unwanted furniture.

Bill
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