[thelist] RE: user perception

[ANDREA STREIGHT]

Hold on one dang minute please!

WRONG: "users are dumb, lazy, inattentive"

That's only true for certain segments of users and newbies.

RIGHT: "users are impatient, in a hurry, easily distracted, easily 
frustrated"

Users generally don't come to your wonderful site in a leisurely, laid back, 
casual mood, with their minds sharp and their focus clear. They often have 
workplace distractions, homeplace distractions, personal problems, and 
various levels of computer savvy.

Big Reality = users are IN A BIG HURRY. They don't have time to wait 15 
seconds for the microwave to zap a bowl of macaroni and cheese, so what 
makes you think they have all the time in the world to figure out your 
idiosyncratic web site?

Users are impatient. They have other things they'd rather be doing than 
mucking around with your registration/log in procedures.

And yes, some users are very dumb. So are some automobile drivers, parents, 
and politicians, but that dumbness is something we must deal with and build 
anti-dumb aspects into our systems.

PLUS: Users spend more time at other sites than at yours. This is a Jakob 
Nielsen law of user reality. Your site must not be radically different from 
the high traffic sites that train users to expect certain functionalities 
and locations and navigations.

As a writer, I've noticed certain textual failures in various online 
instructions.

As a technical writer, I had to learn an important principle: don't leave 
out the preliminary steps. Many instructions begin with Step #3, assuming 
that the user has enough sense and skill to have already automatically 
performed the "obvious" prelims.

For example: How to Change Your IE Setttings: Tools > Internet Options > 
Advanced > Search from the Address Bar > Do Not Search from the Address Bar.

Do you see what's wrong with that instruction? If you don't notice it right 
away, you're too trapped in techland. You need to put on your Typical User 
Goggles.

It should say: Start > Internet Explorer > Tools > (etc. as above)

To think the first two steps are painfully obvious is a natural but 
prejudiced judgement. These first two steps are not obvious to every person 
in the world.



Steven Streight
Web Usability Analyst/Web Artist
astreight at msn.com
vaspersthegrate at yahoo.com
www.vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com
www.streightsite.blogspot.com
www.arttestexplosion.blogspot.com