Don’t Confuse the User

Alice Toth, Tuesday, April 17, 2007 @ 3:14 pm

You’re the team lead for developing the next killer app, and word is passed along that the marketing campaign is being built around the user-centric design of your new app. Unfortunately, no budget has been allocated to hire someone with the desired skill set to achieve this lofty goal. Your developers are heads down into the code and have neither the time nor interest to become user experience gurus. What to do?

Establish a set of guidelines for your developers to follow. It won’t cover every scenario but it will encompass the basic rule of usable interfaces, to wit: don’t confuse the user. Such things as deciding on and applying a consistent terminology (e.g., section names matching up with navigation names), using expected widgets (checkboxes v. radio buttons), and applying consistent behavior (too numerous to mention) are the backbone to creating usable software. If there’s time, add in messaging for the user -- success messages and waiting messages (such as ‘retrieving data,  please hold’) are vital to assuring your user they didn’t make a mistake and a good way to prevent double clicks on submit buttons.

Listen, the reality is that most projects are not fortunate enough to have a separate user interface design team. Anything that can help your developers to at least start thinking about issues regarding user interaction is a good thing. Creating a set of user guidelines is a good way to begin.

user experience design

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