3by9

You are your smartest user

So we worked on the Chawlk Network and we like what we did. Managing 10 sites isn’t easy and we knew it wouldn’t be, but there is one thing I didn’t anticipate and I should have from past experience. I am learning that any site that I am a part of I will always be the smartest user of the site. What I mean by this is since I’m creating the site I know where everything is and how it functions.

I don’t need clues.

I don’t need hints.

I don’t need instructions.

I don’t need signposts.

Because of this though I assume it is intuitive to everyone else. I know this is what user testing is for and over the past couple of weeks Mike and Tyme have been doing that and the results are eye opening to say the least. When I was first told of a user who couldn’t navigate across the site I looked at the site and wondered how in the hell could you not understand it, it made perfect sense. Click here, go there.

But that isn’t the case when you see the site through fresh eyes. Getting user feedback isn’t easy because it shows you what you still need to improve upon and you have to view things without the knowledge you already possess about the site.

Then I came to the realization I do this with everything in my life. If I know something and another person doesn’t I almost always just assume they do. Like we have shared knowledge or something. Explaining a concept to an individual isn’t a task I do well because I think they should know it already, but god forbid I need something explained to me.

So as great as it would be to assume that your users are just like you they aren’t. Probably not even close. You might share the same interests, but that has nothing to do with the knowledge of using your site. You are your smartest user and it is your job to teach people about your site and make it as easy as possible for them to get involved.