Programmers aren’t Homo Sapiens… they’re Homo Logicus. Users are from a different species.
Yeah, programmers cannot comprehend the stupidity of users.
This statement follows a very common fallacy. Users are not stupid: what they are is not interested in your program, only in getting something done. The more attention we demand from them just to understand how to achieve a goal, the less attention the user is paying to the goal itself.
From the programmers’ perspective, users might seem stupid, but that’s because a user is only going to apply a tiny portion of their attention and cognition to understanding the interface. The rest is spent thinking about what they want to achieve. A user interface must be designed to allow the user to devote as little of their attention as possible to the interface, and still get the task achieved.
Rock-on, Man! I could not have said that better myself. Can I quote that last paragraph? I know about, oh, 40 or 50 people who should memorize it.
I agree with bignose. Programmers often spend so much time complaining about how stupid users couldn’t use their program, when really it was a result of a stupid programmer designing a UI for a website control panel which requires a 1000 page training manual to understand. I didn’t really see it mentioned but usability testing is always vital to prevent onset of the feared “developer UI” (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000734.html). I know from my experience that it can be easy to end up showing your creation to someone and having them go “great… how do I use it?”. Its so easy to fall into the trap of ignoring obvious flaws in your UI design because you know exactly how it works, so of course everyone else should.
I give up. Bignose is perfectly correct about his perfect interface, but it’s only going to be helpful for perfectly stupid people and the programmers who love them.
As a Sergio Aragons fan, I suggest we run the stupid people out of town before they burn it down.
best book ever. lol
I pass my copy around to everyone i know who is “designing” a webpage.
@Jim: “We have an app with a very specific business purpose. Somebody off the street would have no idea what we’re talking about. Is there still value in testing release n+1 with experienced users? Or just testing the current release with them?”
Absolutely. 
I was hired to rewrite a dozen or so DOS applications in Windows. Another programmer had been working on a few of the apps, and the first thing I heard was that the current users were afraid that the apps wouldn’t allow data entry as fast as the DOS versions. (The particular app being discussed was for medical claims entry.)
I spent some time with the best data entry clerk, watching her enter claims, where the data was arranged on the forms, the flow of entry across the screen, and so forth. I then designed a data entry screen which mimicked the DOS screen, with the same arrangement of controls and tab order. I even wrote code to allow the Enter key to substitute for the Tab key, so they didn’t have to do anything differently there. Data was validated on the fly, so there weren’t lookups or listbox controls; if they need to look something up, they leave the control empty and hit Enter and a new form is displayed for the lookup. They can select the record they want and hit Enter, and the lookup form closes and the data is filled in on the main form.
I then got the same data entry clerk to sit at my desk and enter some real-life claims (into a development database, of course). I watched her pretty closely; within about two minutes she seemed to be working at the same speed level as she had with the old system. I did notice that she was having to repetitively type some of the data for each claim, however; after talking about it with her, I made some modifications that allowed the repetitive entries to carry over to the next claim automatically, but also allowed them to easily clear it when it actually needed to change. She tested my changes, and after a few minutes, she decided that it was even faster than the old system.
I then brought in a different clerk, and had her enter some claims to see what she thought. She suggested a couple of minor changes, and I added those. I then had both of them test the changes and OK them. I then added two more clerks and repeated the process.
Once all four of them were satisfied, I rolled the app out to the other users for them to test. After they all provided input (and surprisingly no one asked for changes!), I released it into production.
My users all get told the same thing: If you have to repeat a manual task more than once, talk to me and we’ll see if it can be automated. If you think something is hard to do, talk to me and we’ll see if it can be made simpler. If you have an idea about something that could make things easier for you, talk to me and we’ll see if it can be made to happen. When they do talk to me about ideas/changes/whatever, I actually listen and whenever possible implement them. It puts me on really good terms, and I have pretty eager volunteers for the testing on new development; they don’t seem to mind doing the extra work when it makes things better for them in the long run.
Ken
So when I was forcing my parents to play my games, I was doing usability testing? I just wanted to see if someone older than 30 could grok the experience.
Hey, this has cheered me up a bit! I’m writing a piece of software for the office at my school (full of non-techie form-filling phone-answering-type-guys), and my current method of testing is to load it up, give the laptop to my (non-techie) mother and write down all the times she hits the wrong button or asks me what to do next.
Here I thought I was just being lazy, but it turns out this is the right thing to do!
tomatoqueen, thanks for pointing out another reason why I hate users.
that’s: They bitch and moan incessantly.
{{{KenW}}}
Alla youse pay attention to the man, because what he does is how it should be done. In 30-odd years of data entry of all kinds, Windows, DOS, and who-know-what-this-ugly-thing-is, I have encountered maybe one or two IT guys who grasped the reason why users should be treated with this courtesy and respect. Those of you complaining about the idiots in the chairs failed Manners 101 and need to learn that you will be a better genius when you pay close attention to the users of your products out there in the marketplace. In turn, we users become more adept and skillful and responsive and responsible users when we see that our needs are being addressed directly.
Any suggestions for how to get usability testing when you can’t reach the intended users?
My company writes applications for doctors in a specific medical field, and we are having the hardest time getting any real user to sit down for a usability test. Docs won’t waste their time to make a little money, and other people (like lab techs, nurses, residents, etc.) just don’t have enough knowledge of the process to give us the feedback we need.
karl: Sounds like I’d really enjoy using some of your software.
But then, I also enjoy cold coffee, burnt cookies, reality TV, political speeches, refusing to ask for directions when I’m lost, and occasionally poking myself in the eye with a sharp stick.
Greg Poole: you’re welcome to quote that passage you liked. The wisdom is just restated from Don’t Make Me Think, The Humane Interface, and many others; they’re probably more quotable than me.
HugoDataway: oops, I meant to address you with the okay-to-quote. Heck, anyone’s allowed to quote what I’ve said in this discussion if they think it’ll help.
same problem as stefve’s