steve kwan user experience designer

Everyone is an armchair usability expert

(June 12th, 2007 - 10:29AM)

One thing I've noticed is that everyone thinks they really know the user.

When designing software, people tend to make assumptions about what users want, or whether they would find something intuitive. But these assumptions are often based off of personal likes and dislikes, rather than user likes and dislikes. The end result is that software companies sometimes wind up making products that they want, rather than products that users want (and are willing to pay for).

The fact of the matter is that most dev shops don't bother to actually define their users, or take the time to gather and incorporate their feedback. I'll forever remember when a librarian once raised a complaint about a library application I was working on, and my boss said, "Why should I listen to her? She isn't even a real librarian." (He was referring to the fact that she didn't have a degree in that line of work.)

Bear in mind that a lot of the time, the user doesn't even know what she wants. All she knows is what she doesn't want. So often UI design is more complex than just gathering user requirements; you actually have to test multiple designs to figure out what the user doesn't like, and base the UI around what's left.

Elbert Hubbard said, "The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed--it is a process of elimination." I think that this quote is applicable to many other forms of design - in this case, user interface.

I think it's fantastic when people take an interest in usability and user experience, but I would highly encourage them to acquaint themselves with the principles of human-computer interaction and user experience. I won't bother to write up a full thesis on this, but here are some questions to ask yourself whenever you're making a change to a screen.

• Who is the user for this screen?
• Does this screen accomplish the user's objective?
• Will the user know what she is supposed to do on this screen?
• Would a new user be able to understand this screen?
• Would an experienced user be slowed down by this screen?
• Does this screen attempt to achieve more than one goal?
• Will the user's eye be guided to the most important element on the screen?
• If this is a multi-step screen, should we split each step onto a separate screen?
• Are there any unnecessary elements or text on the screen?
• And finally...are company decision-makers okay with this screen?

It's important to note that the last question is the least important. Sometimes software companies jump to the last question and ignore the previous ones.