All Your Users Are Rookies
I just came across an article on Hacker News about how unskilled most (like 90%, not like 51%) computer users are.
The article included “10 things non-technical users don’t understand about your software“. It’s a great read.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned while designing web apps, it’s the old cliche’ that you are not your user.
Have you ever walked through your app from start to finish?
Do it now. It’s unbelievable. But do only what each screen explicitly tells you to do.
Assume nothing. Assume you literally forgot everything you knew before you got to where you were.
Assume you know the very basics of using an web app: left clicking, what a window is, how to open your email.
How usable is that new feature now? Would the proverbial grandma know how to navigate through your app?
Are you talking to your users in a way they can understand?
25. August 2010 at 10:49
>Have you ever walked through your app from start to finish? Do it now.
Even better – watch someone else do it who hasn’t been exposed to your product before. It is a real eye opener.
3. August 2011 at 15:09
[...] ways to get satisfaction. One of my absolute favorites (and in the same vein as my previous post All Your Users are Rookies): 16. Old hat. Just because an issue is “old” to you, doesn’t mean it’s old to the person [...]