design yourusersarefixingitforyouyoushouldthankthem

Malleable

I can't listen to Smoosh playing "Find a Way" and not hear Dave Grohl screaming "Find a way!" (ka-thump ka-thump) "Figure you out!" 1. Not that he's ever covered the song. But that's the way popular music works for me — it's malleable in sound and meaning. In your head, you can mix it up.

Design, I think, works the same way. The people using your designs will change them, make them into something they aren't, or weren't meant to be, but are meaningful to them.

Sometimes this looks like misunderstanding.

Listen for the next time a person using your design says you have to click three times. Listen for when they say that the application is slow because there's been a rainstorm. Before you get all Vally of the Jolly Ho-Ho-Ho Green Giant and say, "Did you try unplugging your computer from the wall and blowing the dust off the prongs?" listen again to what they are saying. Because it's a tell. They don't even realize it. They are covering for you.

It's not a misunderstanding, it's a favor.

The next time one of the people using your design says, "Oh the application is slow in here because this room has a bad wi-fi connection," what they are really telling you is "There is a problem in your design should think about." I know, I know. When you get all of these problems into Rally and start prioritizing them, the "bad wi-fi connection" problem may trace back to a low priority bug. But you still should think about it.

Maybe your design already has something that you can use to explain what is happening. Can you take some of the mystery out of it with a better label, or a clearer alert message? Or a spinner that says, "Go get a cup of coffee."2. to manage their expectations? Why not?

Be accommodating. Be crazy. Just don't think they are stupid.

  1. Don't believe me? Make a playlist with "Find a Way" b/w "My Hero" and then put it on repeat. Listen enough times until it all kind of blurs together.
  2. Via KV