We see it everywhere: database queries to shopping carts, the message "Operation X successfully completed" is ubiquitous. But is the word "successfully" really necessary?
Is there a way to unsuccessfully complete a credit card transaction?
Your transaction of US$ 1,346,353.82 was unsuccessfully completed. Your account was debited but vendor did not get the money. Now that money is trapped inside a black hole.
How do you think the word "successfully" affects the user experience? Is it something that should go away, or is it all right to actually have the word in messages?
Answer
Answer "No". "Successfully" can be removed:
Joel Spolsky covered this issue very well here:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000062.html
The basic rule of thumb is that:
"In fact, users don't read anything.
This may sound a little harsh, but you'll see, when you do usability tests, that there are quite a few users who simply do not read words that you put on the screen. If you pop up an error box of any sort, they simply will not read it. This may be disconcerting to you as a programmer, because you imagine yourself as conducting a dialog with the user. Hey, user! You can't open that file, we don't support that file format! Still, experience shows that the more words you put on that dialog box, the fewer people will actually read it."
It's an extension of the "Don't make me think" principle - or in this case "Don't make me read" because users avoid expending mental energy.
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