The label goes where?

I’ve recently been testing a web application that does some horrible things — for example, clicking what appears to be one link in a navigation bar sends (incomplete) information away as a final submission. There’s not even a warning. This behaviour should be changed before the application launches: I’ve lodged a bug report.

You have to wonder, though, how such a ‘bug’ could have arisen in the first place.

Today Rachel McAlpine talks about a real-world outcome of things being in unexpected places:

Yesterday Elsie arrived wearing her pants back to front. It didn’t stop any of her activities, including her Cinderella task of washing my kitchen floor. However, she couldn’t put her hands in her pockets and the pants looked funny.

Why this unaccustomed booboo by an experienced self-dresser?

The inside label, that scratchy bit of cloth with the manufacturer’s name (O’Neill), was at the front instead of the back. Like most people, Elsie knows the label goes in the back. It’s the main clue for figuring front from back.

Our usability makeover involved cutting off all traces of that label. And sometimes, features of design and content that foil online readers can be fixed just as easily.

[Via Contented: Usability: put things where expected.]

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