Usability and WLAN

January 4, 2006 on 11:29 am | In Computing |

My big project as of late has been finally finished, namel the bookchapter on software ergonomics and usability. I wrote it together with Simon Raess and Rudolf Groner. It was a lot of fun and I think it turned out really well. Now it’s going to the publishing company, so let’s see what they say about it.

Yesterday I installed my first WLAN at a friend’s house. I have to say the usability of that Planet router wasn’t really that good… the good thing was it immediately worked, all I had to do was to plug it in - even a non-tech person could do that. However, securing one’s WLAN with that router was a totally different story… The settings for WPA security were hidden somewhere behind an inconspicous button of the router webinterface. The quick installation guide didn’t say a word about security, the full installation guide didn’t come printed out on paper but had to be read from a CD-ROM, and a special leaflet packed by the manufacturer recommended to turn on the additional security features, but it had no info how to do that or where one could get further information (namely on the CD-ROM). Dudes, you seriously need to review your documentation.

BTW, this GEO article (German only) on usability had me learn there’s an entire society in Germany with the mere purpose to write good technical documentation. I guess I’ll have to sneak around their site a bit looking for job opportunities.