Web developers think you're stupid

It's true. Every day, in web departments and web design firms across America (and probably the world), a common and ugly refrain is repeated"

Our users are stupid.

They won't get it.

Project managers and developers describe their own users as below average, behind the curve and not savvy.

It's disgusting. No other mainstream industry would dream of holding its clients and customers in such low regard.

"Only two industries refer to their customers as 'users': computer design and drug dealing." — Edward Tufte

But here's the thing. If almost everyone is on the web — and according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 73% of Americans are internet users — then either almost everyone is stupid, or the developers and web project managers are.

In other words, users – for want of a better term – could be anybody. Your mom. My Mom. Jack Kevorkian. Charles Barkley. That guy down the street who walks his dog all the time. Anybody.

Many of these people have advanced degrees and Mensa memberships. Some really are stupid. The point is, users are everyone and anyone. They are our friends, our peers, they're us.

They're you and me, and almost everyone we know.

Which means some web professional somewhere thinks you're dumb. They think I'm dumb. They think everyone who comes to their site is dumb. Too dumb to "get it".

User: n. The word computer professionals use when they mean "idiot." — Dave Barry

You are a web site user. Are you an idiot?

Web professionals mix a coctail of arrogance, ignorance, elitism and laziness so they can do as little as possible, all in the name of protecting the user from their own stupidity. The whole insidious mindset belittles web users, and the web itself.

Well listen up, web developers: It's not the user. It's you.

Don Norman, author of "Design of Everyday Things" and the less blustery founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, has been arguing that it's not the user that's stupid since before the web even existed. He suggests:

Terms to beware of:
fool-proof or idiot-proof (oh, you mean you think your customers are fools or idiots?); user-friendly (which usually means to hold users by the hand and force them to do things one step at a time, in prescribed order, whether they like it or not); and intuitive (which in actuality means so automatic it is not conscious, but those who use the term forget that almost everything we call intuitive, such as walking or using a pencil took years of practice.

His partner, Jakob Nielsen, puts a more business-oriented spin on it:

When people have problems using a design, it's not because they are stupid. It's because the design is too difficult. What percentage of your prospects will you turn away because they are not smart enough to use your website? Maybe 10% of your potential customers? Or perhaps 20%? That's a lot of dollars lost to an elitist attitude.

The basic "stupid user" mindset needs to change. Even among the more forward thinking developers — the ones who read and parrot back Nielsen, Norman and Tufte.

Forget user-centered design. How about creating People Centered Design? And instead of waxing poetically about user experience, how about focusing on Human Experience?

The oft-repeated mantra of "Keep it Simple, Stupid" is wrong. It's not about simplicity above all.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. — Albert Einstein

Simple is good, but not as good as clarity, usability, respect and friendliness. Don't be obtuse, and don't be a jerk. And stop thinking I am an idiot, along with every other "user".

Your visitors aren't junkies. They're not just statistics in your log files. They're not anonymous apparitions wandering through your server space. They're thinking, feeling people, and they've done you a great favor by granting you a bit of their time (and maybe their money).

Show them a little respect.

Originally Posted on The Bitter PIll.

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What web developers can do about "stupid users"

Tim Baxter

Thu Jun 8

6