[USERS.] Many fall into the trap of being their own user. It’s sad that real users are often not part of the entire design process whether it is a website or an application. You already know all about your services; your users don’t. You carry the passion for your business identity; your users don’t. Business owners have one or all of the following reasons to “skip” the users. #1. I know I can step in my user’s shoes and can understand his taste and preferences. Seriously, this is the most common syndrome of business owners. We should appreciate that it is not just difficult, but impossible to leave our bias behind, as owners. The assumptions on user’s taste and preferences will always have many holes and gaps. You can’t match the attitude of your users. You can’t predict how they’ll want to get things done on your website/application. Surprisingly, even usability-driven larger product companies commit this blunder. How else can you explain disasters named Google Buzz and Google Wave? #2. I want to surprise my users by not involving them. Surprise or not, this is a guaranteed recipe for shocking your users. This disconnect has proven in the past to be almost irreversible in nature. Most who fall into this category do not involve users to maintain secrecy of their application. They don’t realize that great products are never built in isolation. Your product will become great only if it is shared and tested upfront by the intended end users. One of my recent experiences with a client led to a funny experience. I was designing their portal and after engaging with the representative users, came up with a 1-click logout mechanism (from every page). The client insisted that he wanted the users to struggle (spend more time) before logging out, so the design should make the logout mechanism subtle. I wonder whether this forced surprise is going to work in favor or against the application! Any guesses? #3. My users are not experts to contribute; they don’t know what they want. Classic excuse! Maybe you would know what feature your product should have or what content your website should have. It still does not tell you “how” users will use the feature or browse the content. Irony of the argument is that since your users are not “experts” it is even more necessary to engage with them during design phase. We should STOP suggesting our expertise and open up our perspective for the users. === In conclusion, whether it’s interviews, surveys, testing with users, contextual inquiries or card sorting – anything will do as a process of connecting with your users. Let’s not pretend to be our own users; we are least capable of playing the role, no matter what the IQ/EQ.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 03:43:55 +0000
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