Users don't read.
Anyone involved in any way, shape, or form, in building a web site ought to read this post.
Users don't read.
It doesn't matter how short, concise, funny, pretty, or witty you make it. They just won't read it. You can make it bold, italicized, bold italics, or the ugliest purple you've ever seen, but they still won't read it.
So what do you do?
You have to assume they won't read it, and design an interface that doesn't require any reading. Yeah, it sounds absurd, and it is, kind of, but that's what you have to shoot for. That's one of the reasons why we had to redo Gradefix so many times. You've got to simplify, and go to extreme pains to make sure your interface is as intuitive as possible for as big of an audience as you can target. And the rest, well, they'll either have to read, or find something else. Their loss... ;)
Users don't read.
It doesn't matter how short, concise, funny, pretty, or witty you make it. They just won't read it. You can make it bold, italicized, bold italics, or the ugliest purple you've ever seen, but they still won't read it.
So what do you do?
You have to assume they won't read it, and design an interface that doesn't require any reading. Yeah, it sounds absurd, and it is, kind of, but that's what you have to shoot for. That's one of the reasons why we had to redo Gradefix so many times. You've got to simplify, and go to extreme pains to make sure your interface is as intuitive as possible for as big of an audience as you can target. And the rest, well, they'll either have to read, or find something else. Their loss... ;)
posted by Mac at 9:45 PM
1 Comments:
I may not have room to say anything, since I am one who does read most everything, but I am learning this same lesson. It does not matter how carefully you try to explain an interface, it will be ignored. Since we can't sit down with every end user a lot of effort has to go into simplifying (or making things "idiot proof" as some like to say). Thanks for trying not to get lost in the words.
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