Why "There are no user errors" is true
Submitted by admin on Mon, 09/22/2008 - 15:52 Posted in
Have you ever heard the expression, "There are no user errors, only designer errors"?
This is the usability belief that underlies all usability and user advocacy work, because it says we can fix user experience issues. We don't have to be victims of bad design or poor technology implementation. We can fix our designs so they are frustration-proof.
David Pogue of the New York Times recently shared a "typical user" story. He attempted to unravel the logic of his experience with an airport kiosk:
"Are you kidding me? It doesn't know the airline's own flight time? Come on--it already knows what flight I'm on, so what's the point of this exercise? For God's sake, just check me in!"
He equates the experience to badly designed software, and rightly puts the "blame" where it should be:
"Whenever I encounter badly designed software like this, I stand there, slack-jawed, mind boggling, and wonder what on earth the designers were *thinking.* Not, obviously, about elegance, intelligence and simplicity".
Pogue concludes by articulating a growing desire for elegant and emotionally articulated user experiences.
"So the next time you're frustrated by software complexity, take heart; much of the time, it's not you. It's them. It's designers who have something on their mind other than software intelligence".
Translation of Pogue's user story: We can do something about frustrating and confusing user experiences. Understand how people think, feel and make sense out of our designs is the first step.
Source: Pogue, David. "It's the Software, Not You" New York Times, July 31st 2008
Frank Spillers' Comment:
We have all heard (and told) these user stories. In fact I like to say, once you start learning about usability, it makes you "bitch meaningfully" about techno-frustration and techno-confusion. Pogue's entertaining story has a few key lessons in it:
1) The logic of a well intentioned design can fall flat on it's face in real world usage;
2) Features can get in the way, no matter how important they are to business requirements;
3) Defaults and pre-configured experiences will do just fine for 90% of users. This last point is not a trivial one. In an upcoming usability training I'll be doing for a major consumer product firm, I plan on bringing in a door prize, a Kodak 1959 Brownie Bullet camera who's list of features on the side of the box start with: "Easy to Operate--No Adjustments"...
Related articles:
"Feature frenzy"- 10 tips to getting feature creep under control
"Forcing functions"- interaction design technique, used but not widely understood
Configuration Hell- The Case for the Plug and Play User Experience