Spencer logs into the Virtual School and being unfamiliar with the software
decides that he will create a group notebook to experiment on, which he
will delete when he is finished. He creates the notebook and begins
typing and experimenting with notebook capabilities, creating, editing
and deleting different notebook sections. After satisfying himself
that he is relatively familiar with the capabilities of the software, he
decides that he will now get rid of this notebook. He clicks
on the Edit menu on the login screen and notices that there is no option
to delete a notebook. Figuring that this capability must be hidden
somewhere else he decides to continue searching. He clicks to open
the notebook and chooses Edit from the notebook menu. He sees options
for deleting sections of the notebook, but nothing to delete the entire
notebook. He checks the other menus on the notebook menu and then
goes back to the main login screen and looks for the option he wants under
the File menu. The Help menus all appear to be blank. After
clicking around futilely a little longer, he decides that deleting a notebook
must not be an option.
The inability to delete a notebook:
+assures that other group members will not lose notebooks that they
need
-BUT may clutter the accounts of group members who no longer need a
notebook
-BUT may be frustrating to users who do not realize they cannot delete
a notebook
The fact that users can delete entire sections of notebooks:
+allows any user to edit the notebook
-BUT may result in the loss of information neccessary to one group
member
The lack of an online help capability:
+assures that users don't get lost trying to use help
+supports the active user role
-BUT gives the user nowhere to go to get help when they get stuck