Interface usability et al

Here is input to the overall problem with this application:

The documentation uses many words that obscure the actual reality. Waffle words is the term commonly applied to what is termed documentation for this application. Short, understandable, direct statements need to be in the documentation.

e.g., it appears that if you actually want to restore a system you must use a sector by sector disk backup. There is simply no point to using partition backup because this is the same as disk backup (with one partition), except it won't necessarily do what you expect; and it is not clear that it will yield a file that allows system recovery. Particularly if there is more than one partition; like the one Win 7 builds on the boot drive. Many pages of documentation are provided for this simple concept, without actually providing a clear statement.

Want to restore - do disk by sector. Period. End of statement. Why all the rest of the crap.

Any manufacturer of hardware or software needs to have any interface tested by people that do not do this for a living. This is a utility. Press button "A" and the universe is good. It is not a cult thing whose followers know all about the stupidities and odd exceptions/requirements to just make a restoreable backup. Users don't care about your application. They just want a simple interface that prevents them from losing system/data. Customers are not into "backup". They have other uses for their computer and expect transparent utilities for simple functions. Hint: backup and restore is a simple utility. There should be a very, very , very minimal learning curve. We (the customer; as in we paid for this thing) do not exist as trainees for your incomprehensible application. We just want the thing to backup and restore.

How hard should this be? Nothing I do seems to result in what I expect (or should happen). Paths to required information are obscure beyond any expectation for commercially viable software. It is just too hard. I reiterate; the interface is just too difficult to comprehend and use!!!!! I have no other way to state this. Many of your customers have said essentially the same thing. What are you people thinking? JHFC!

Backup scenarios to insure recovery are obscure, not understandable, and never seem to accomplish what he poor stupid customer expects. Backup selections make no sense. Relevant parameters are missing or obscurely placed. Go out front of your building; pick a random person from the pedestrian traffic. Pay them to come inside and make sense of your product. Fix product.

Naming conventions are arbitrarily enforced, and make no sense.

Data can be inadvertently destroyed by a user trying to figure out how this works. Doing things that should never result in an unannounced removal of data.

Can you find no one that has any idea of what an actual user interface needs to be. Never, never, never, never allow the people that write the code or documentation decide if it is usable. When evaluating the situation, they draw from their "n" years of experience with the product, to decide what is comprehensible. They are always wrong. Get an evaluation group that is not in-bred to evaluate interfaces. The current one sucks. It is non-intuitive, misleading, and just plain a piece of crap.

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