Every application kind of needs two modes: a default mode where the user is railroaded into making the right decision, and an "I'm not an idiot and will actually read the documentation before/after trying to make things work" mode. If you stick the toggle for the two modes somewhere that you'd only find by reading the documentation, people will automatically categorize themselves into the mode the ought to be in.

The documentation:

Put the leaves inside the cup

Appropriate that you used tea bags because it's a popular legend that tea bags were created after customers misused the product. Some tea sellers started selling their tea in silk bags with the intention that customers would remove the leaves from the bag before use. Instead, customers dipped the bag of leaves directly into water.

There is no such thing as a feature that doesn't need documentation. Anyone who thinks so is asking everyone else not to use it

The sort of end user that gets common sense stuff wrong is not the sort of end user that would ever have read the documentation anyway 🤷

Look, computers are like idiot savants - incredibly fast and capable of doing all sorts of things with mindless determination, but without a shred of common sense - so when you're programming you have to literally explain everything including what for you is obvious and there is a whole class of bugs (around corner cases and boundary conditions) related to the programmers not explaining absolutelly everything and forgetting some really rare or unusual situations.

For documentation purposes one should assume that at least some users are like computers, without the savant part.

I write two forms of documentation:

One is an in-depth description of function, form and reason to understand and advance on the principles, stepping through processes and offering the opportunity to build on it if they choose

The other is designed for a hungover tech with a screaming customer on the line who just wants to know what to do to make it all go away.

Making apple pies is much harder cause you have to build a universe first. I just skip right past those recipes.

It is a common sense feature.

You got to keep the tea bag higher than the water so that the string is up straight for the capillary action to take place, so that the water goes up to the teabag and fetches the tea back into the mug.

The worst is making it about intelligence. Most of the time, the stuff that is “obvious” is not so obvious to most people. Being an arrogant fool about it only makes things worse.

This reminds me of soda/beer can designs. You know the hole in the ring tab? I used to believe it was there only for it to provide better grip for your finger when opening it. Turned out it was also there so you can fit a straw and have a way of stabilizing it.

Most people had no idea about that.

Reminds me of DMing an adventure that hinges on the party encountering teabags and hot water.

// teabag

// flail