A reminder of how fallible we software developers are came last night in the form of a call from my Dad. He was asking for help with his blog. He told me that he went in to “replace one word” in one of his posts and when he was done he noticed that all the images in the post had disappeared. And he didn't know how to bring them back.
Although I was not able to find out how he did it, it is evident that my Dad modified the html of the post in such a way that the image tags were accidentally removed from it.
My Dad is no html connoisseur. He does not need to be one. I am sure the very popular blogging software he prefers was designed with the expectancy that its users do not know html.
The users of my systems are like my Dad. Are the users of your software like him, too?
Most times, users just want to “replace one word”. I think we still have a long road ahead when it comes to making this easy for them.