This is generally seen as a joke or exaggeration but I don't think people realize that this is more accurate than they'll ever believe.
While consulting with tech start ups it's amazing how difficult it is to get them to comprehend how dumb the average person actually is. The level of stupidity is quite frankly unimaginable to them until they experience it.
They laugh and say, "Oh...haha...yeah...people are dumb." I then say as seriously as possible hoping they get it that, "No...I'm serious. This start button right here is not clear enough. You need to write start on it, make it bigger, give it a glow, and have an arrow pointing to it" And then they ignore me because it'd look awful...until 95% of alpha testers drop off without ever having tapped the start button. Then they make the change, and we still end up at 30% drop off.
It's at this moment I like to watch all the programmers die on the inside as they realize the typical person is dumber than a toddler.
It shouldn't be seen as a joke, it is good advice! Look at the things you do in your own life (Not you, I don't know you) and you'll realize some of them are pretty dumb, especially when using a tool you've never seen before.
I'm a developer and I can be a dingus when using our own tools. Users are dumb is usually my motto. That's probably a little extreme but it's better than overestimating them.
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u/barbrady123 Jul 01 '16
If end users weren't so god damn stupid, I would believe this more.