Neilson Norman Group Research

I was scrolling through the NNG website, and came across this video.

It was all about how designers are not users, and users are not designers.

You cannot get a great design by asking users by asking what they want, rather, we can create one by observing users doing tasks on the interfaces that we are trying to improve.

We, as designers, know where to find things on our own interfaces – so we can find them easily! Users, however, may not have this same experience as us, because they didn’t design it, and do not know how to navigate it the way that we do. Users being confused whilst using a product that is difficult to navigate may cause them to abandon the product.

This is why user testing is so important. Observing the user move through the product, and watching how they use it, allows us to create a new iteration that can make the user experience a whole lot easier.

Conducting user tests early on in the design process (e.g. lo-fi wireframes) is the best way to find issues as early as possible. Catching possible issues in the UI early saves time and money.

Thoughts:

I really enjoyed watching this short clip, and I think it has made me a lot more inclined to try and conduct some user testing on my wireframes. This way, I can check if my app is easily navigated before I start prototyping it – and then have to re-do a bunch of things.

I also think I will continuously remind myself that I am not my users, and even with lots of extensive user research, I will never fully understand how they think. This is important to do, as it will make me more conscious about making UI designs look a certain way just because I think it looks good. UX design is about creating efficient and useful designs that create solutions for real problems – not about making a pretty interface.

Accessibility also comes into play here, because I don’t have any major issues with my sight, as well as not having any other disabilities. This fact means that I will never be able to fully empathise with the users that might – and so I should always be designing with them in mind too.

I am thankful that I watched this video at this stage in my process, as it has driven me to make a design that is as user-friendly as possible.