The big test for usability is whether you find yourself thinking ‘this is annoying’. It doesn’t matter how killer your ‘Killer App’ is, if people don’t find it usable they will go out of their way to not use it.

Via Bruce Schneier comes a great example of system avoidance and it’s consequences. So who are the annoyed users? Oh, just the Queensland police department.

They are reluctant to make arrests and they’re showing a lot more discretion in the arrests they make because QPRIME is so convoluted to navigate,” Mr Leavers said. He said minor street offences, some traffic offences and minor property matters were going unchallenged, but not serious offences.

I feel like I should add a ‘not yet’ or ‘that they know of’ disclaimer to the end of that quote.

Not that I am against the authorities using their discretion, but it should be based on the context of the offence, not the reluctance to use the post-arrest information system.