June 15 2010
Don't make users feel bad
Matt Drance posted an interesting thought the other day about the average consumer rejecting bad user experience. When helping out my parents or other non-technical folk, I’ve never found that. At least, not exactly. Average consumers do not think about user experience. They don’t think about workflows, calls to action, marketing copy, or corner cases. Consumers just use stuff. When something goes wrong, it’s their fault. They internalize any problems. They blame themselves.
When consumers have a great user experience, they don’t notice. They don’t wonder how you designed the product so well. They just use it and move on, but that’s a good thing. They shouldn’t feel bad while using your product. Don’t make users feel bad because eventually they’ll choose a better user experience as a coping mechanism.
User experience: Because your users internalize your product’s failures.
