Comments on: How to Write Excellent Online Instructions http://www.webusability.se/blog/2007/07/28/how-to-write-excellent-online-instructions-for-your-users/ Creating a Web with Better Usability, Piece by Piece Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:34:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Mattias http://www.webusability.se/blog/2007/07/28/how-to-write-excellent-online-instructions-for-your-users/comment-page-1/#comment-9806 Mattias Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:34:27 +0000 http://www.webusability.se/blog/2007/07/28/how-to-write-excellent-online-instructions-for-your-users/#comment-9806 Hi and welcome to the blog! As you can see, this piece was written almost four years ago so I had to go back and reread it again in light of your comment. I sincerily apologize if you felt offended with my sporadic use of she/her. It was simply my attempt at breaking the norm of using the male pronoun as a default, but I can now see how it came across as insulting instead, the opposite of my intentions. I don't see users as ignorant, hence my tip: "Think of your user as intelligent, in a hurry and an expert in their own field, which is usually not the topic of the instruction." I'm a bit confused as to how you take that to be about me thinking about "ignorant women", but clearly I need to communicate my point better. Again, my apologies for having offended you and I do appreciate the comment. I'm also curious what search terms you used when you ended up at this blog post, it would be really interesting for me to know. Best regards, Mattias Hi and welcome to the blog!

As you can see, this piece was written almost four years ago so I had to go back and reread it again in light of your comment.

I sincerily apologize if you felt offended with my sporadic use of she/her. It was simply my attempt at breaking the norm of using the male pronoun as a default, but I can now see how it came across as insulting instead, the opposite of my intentions.

I don’t see users as ignorant, hence my tip: “Think of your user as intelligent, in a hurry and an expert in their own field, which is usually not the topic of the instruction.” I’m a bit confused as to how you take that to be about me thinking about “ignorant women”, but clearly I need to communicate my point better.

Again, my apologies for having offended you and I do appreciate the comment. I’m also curious what search terms you used when you ended up at this blog post, it would be really interesting for me to know.

Best regards,
Mattias

]]> By: Insulted female http://www.webusability.se/blog/2007/07/28/how-to-write-excellent-online-instructions-for-your-users/comment-page-1/#comment-9786 Insulted female Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:30:56 +0000 http://www.webusability.se/blog/2007/07/28/how-to-write-excellent-online-instructions-for-your-users/#comment-9786 Hello - I did a Google search and came across this article. While I understand that you are trying to be helpful, I don't appreciate the intermittent use of "she" and "her" in your article. You made somewhat of an effort to keep things gender-neutral by using words like "user" and "their" when referring to your subjects. However you slipped up and showed that you clearly had ignorant women in mind when you were writing this. I'd like to recall your line about, "Don’t be insulting or patronizing – nobody likes that." Well, you're right - nobody likes that. Please make a greater effort to keep your private thoughts about the intelligence of women, well, private. Thank you. Hello – I did a Google search and came across this article. While I understand that you are trying to be helpful, I don’t appreciate the intermittent use of “she” and “her” in your article. You made somewhat of an effort to keep things gender-neutral by using words like “user” and “their” when referring to your subjects. However you slipped up and showed that you clearly had ignorant women in mind when you were writing this. I’d like to recall your line about, “Don’t be insulting or patronizing – nobody likes that.” Well, you’re right – nobody likes that. Please make a greater effort to keep your private thoughts about the intelligence of women, well, private. Thank you.

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