User Expectations (part deux)

It's strange how the current generation (don't get me started on the following generation) has become accustomed to certain expectations for software. CTRL-C should *always* mean "I want to take whatever is selected, and use it somewhere else." Menu -> File should *always* contain "Save as..." so I can take what I've written and save it as a different version. (speaking of which -- when will Operating Systems start implementing integrated version control?)

For those of this generation who have used any version of a search engine well enough to know how to "manipulate" it (i.e., correctly use it) to find relevant results, we know that "-" (the minus sign) means "please, don't include this word in my search results".

I am not a frequent ebay user, but it delightfully participated in my "reality" by accepting that "-airsoft" as a search parameter meant I wasn't searching for an airsoft gun.

For better or for worse, users have already set standards for how our programs should function. To go against these "traditions" is to go against any other established societal standard -- to drive in the left lane; to turn a screw to the left in order to tighten it; to have the "power" button on the right-hand side of the TV remote-control; to defy gravity...

As any good citizen of the human population, our job is to question tradition; however, some traditions are so ingrained and so untouchable that we must acquiesce to the norms and toe the line.

When designing user interfaces, first ask yourself -- "would this be most natural to me?" As any HCI professor would tell you, that's not enough. You must think outside your own inclinations and actually consider the input of those who are not accustomed to thinking "behind the scenes" of an application -- who can actually (I might say "without bias") say "ladies and gentleman of the jury -- this. does. not. make. sense..

I wish that you would just leave
Because your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
-- Evanescence - My Immortal