There's something weird going on in the Gateway Center in Park City (the building where I work).  On the top floor, Zane Benefits has two offices, Hunter Capital (a venture capital firm) has one, and the HR department of the Sky Lodge (a hotel) has the fourth.  There are only these four offices.

Hunter and Zane Benefits have signs on all their doors identifying which company occupies that space.  The Sky Lodge doesn't have any sign and there's no receptionist.  When you look in their door there isn't anyone to speak to and there's no indication that the Sky Lodge is there.

Being the HR department for a hotel, there are constantly people coming in to interview for positions.  They know to go to the top floor of our building but then they're lost.  My desk is next to a window that looks out onto the entire public area of our floor so I see exactly what everyone goes through to figure out which office to go into.

The average Sky Lodge applicant gets off the elevator and immediately sees all four offices.  They see 3 doors that are clearly not what they're looking for and one unmarked door.  Despite the fact that the unmarked door has to be the Sky Lodge, everyone ends up coming into our office and asking where the Sky Lodge is.

Aside from the obvious question of why the Sky Lodge doesn't just put up a sign, I can't help but wonder why people prefer to go into an office that is clearly not what they're looking for rather than going into the office that is almost certainly what they're looking for.  

I think the answer is that people are afraid of uncertainty.  The Zane Benefits office looks friendly and professional.  It's obvious that if you walk in, someone will talk to you and help you out.  No one wants to go into an unmarked office and wander around until they find someone.

So as always, I'm going to force this weird anecdote into the context of web design.  I generally assume that I can build features into a website and advanced users will find them on their own.  The less sophisticated users don't generally need to see these features, so I figure there's no need to hold anyones hand.  Now I'm wondering if even advanced computer users might have a mental block preventing them from trying things that are uncertain.

For example, sometimes I'm on a website and I'm not sure what a button does.  Generally, I just click the button and see what happens.  What's the worst that could happen?

Well, Most people probably don't try things unless they know exactly what they're doing.  Maybe it's time to do a little more hand holding, even for power users.