How much time do you spend complaining when a web site, HTML email, or other internet based tool confuses you or just doesn’t work?  And not just muttering under your breath, or over your shoulder to your cube-mate, but actually sending email to or calling the person responsible for the issue?

I’m guessing not much.  I mean really - in today’s busy world who has the time?  And technical glitches happen all the time, and with so many layers of technology between you and a website the problem you just noticed was probably your computer, your internet connection, or your company firewall, right?.  So why bother sending an email to the site owner?  They’re just going to ask you a bunch of questions and take up more of your precious time.  And you, being the resourceful user you are, figured out another way to get the answers you were seeking.

So why is it, in conversations with site owners and email newsletter admins, I so often hear (fill in the blank technology) “must be working OK, because no one has ever complained”?  If you aren’t complaining to other sites, what makes you think your users are going to complain to you?

It’s a lame argument, and will never take the place of rigorous testing - both to see if people can figure out how to use what you’re putting out there, and Q/A testing to assure that it works on all the different technologies it’s supposed to.