On Tue, 29 Mar 2005, Holly Bostick wrote: > In any case, Dave still had to search for the typo one way or another > even with the advice; this was unavoidable. But the error message > already contained the information on where to start the search (and in > fact what was wrong, by indicating that there was a typo somewhere). So > what I am wondering (again, nothing about you personally, Dave, you > simply seem to have a fairly typical user issue), is why users have > difficulty understanding these messages, and using them effectively.
As someone who works in support (ISP), I find a lot of people: 1) Dont read the error message given (made worse by the fact that people read less these days!). You can send these people FAQs, warning emails, whatever and they won't read them. Recent case in point: user was over mailbox quota and was sent automated warning when they hit 90% - advice on how to clean out their mailbox is given in a URL in the email, but does anyone read that??? 2) Read the error message but simply dont get it - these are the people who drive a car but know nothing about the basic mechanics of how the engine propels the vehicle (these people also rarely change their oil or do any basic maintenance on their cars). 3) Too scared to read the error - many people fear technology or fear that they may "break the computer" by poking around. (IMHO, poking around and tinkering however are the BEST ways to learn anything). 4) Read the error message and use it as a starting point to systematically track down the problem - these users are very rare (though there's a lot of them in the Linux community). Users in groups (1), (2) and (3) would consider these people "power users". -- -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
