February 3rd, 2010 • #creativity#empathy
Or maybe “Stop saying your users are idiots.” They’re not idiots if they “don’t get” your interface. Stop making excuses and fix your interface. There’s something in it that’s unfamiliar to your users.
You don’t have to “dumb it down” either. Unfamiliar can be okay if you give users cues to learn how to make sense of this new thing you’ve created.
Don’t make something mysterious under the guise of being “creative” and then blame your users when they don’t understand how to use it. If you’re going to lead the way into uncharted territory, leave a trail so users can keep up.
A blog full of thoughts and observations on making the web a better place, collected by Sarah Harrison.
Recommended reading
blogs
52 Weeks of UX — usually updated weekly with two short & sweet articles on a variety of topics related to design for the Web. Really good stuff.- A List Apart — I’ve been a reader since probably 2001, and they keep producing quality content, year after year.
- Asterisk 52 — The experienced and talented D. Keith Robinson writes about web design, game design, and more.
- Brown Blog — From Matt Brown and Tiffani Jones, a fearsome duo producing some useful and straightforward articles on web design, content strategy, and more.
- Smashing Magazine — I have kind of a love-hate relationship with this blog. Half their articles are mindless lists of lists clearly aimed at driving traffic, but then there's a steady undercurrent of real, useful, meaty content sprinkled throughout.
- User Interface Engineering Brain Sparks — The blog at UIE.com, from usability researcher and speaker Jared Spool, is full of examples, insight, interviews with designers from all over the world, and a lot of great information.
- UX Booth — I'm a new reader of this User Experience and usability focused blog, but what I've seen so far has been really useful and interesting.
