The first time you ask him, he might say, ???Are you sure you want me to do that???? But
if you ask him to do the same job 50 times a day, you don??™t want to hear the response, ???Are you
sure???? People use situational logic to anticipate how to avoid inappropriate responses, and your
application can automatically do the same to avoid aggravating the user. Of course, you can also
put a checkbox in the confirmation dialog box that says, ???Don??™t show this message again,??? but
some users won??™t check that box no matter how many times they see it, because they don??™t take the
time to read it.
Providing Levels of Control
Users with different levels of expertise need different levels of control. Beginners perform better
with some aids that experts may find hinder efficiency. For example, children who are learning to
ice skate start out with two or four blades on their skates, whereas adults would find that more
than one blade hinders their performance. Children learn to ride a bike with training wheels, but
the same wheels may cause an adult to fall off the bike.
Many applications are targeted solely to beginners and may not need to provide levels of control.
These applications are sometimes called WYSIAYG (what you see is all you get).
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