In UIE's new post on "the wheres and whens of users' expectations<http://www.uie.com/articles/user_expectations/>", Jared states:
"When creating great experiences, it's not so much about doing what users expect. Instead, it's about creating a design that clearly meets their needs at the instant they need it." The article makes a clear case for this statement in the context of what was researched to write it, but the statement itself could be misleading. Buttons and command links and other UI controls set expectations in users' minds all the time, and those that set a very clear expectation are generally seen as having a high degree of usability (obviously, this ties back to the "usability = predictability" discussion). They instill confidence that what will happen next is what the user believes will happen next. For example, a button labeled "Save now" sets an expectation that whatever was just done on a particular screen/state will be saved. If the change is not saved, the resulting screen/state breaks the user's expectation. And, of course, this leads to frustration. (Yes, you can certainly do more than just save, in an attempt to create a delightful moment for a user, but the system, at the very least, should do what was promised.) In other words, when creating great experiences, it may not necessarily be about doing what users expect in the first place, but it is often most certainly about living up to the expectations you explicitly attempt to set through the design. If you label a button "Save Now", it better do exactly that. So, to clarify, it is definitely about creating a design that clearly meets a need at the instant users need it, but it's also about living up to the expectations the system sets. It's not one or the other. It's both. Arguments? -r- ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
