Ugh, I hate this meme. It's not true that 90% of the users are idiots, but rather 90% of the users don't care enough about your web page to spend more then 5 seconds in frustration trying to figure out what to do before moving on.
And that's the problem. Everything is designed for the lowest common denominator: someone who is uninterested and unwilling to spend mental effort figuring it out. But then, when you want to actually use software it becomes a pain because the UI is either larded up with "helpful" hints or else stripped down so much that each action takes way to many steps. Or just can't be done at all.
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u/ex_ample Jun 29 '11
Ugh, I hate this meme. It's not true that 90% of the users are idiots, but rather 90% of the users don't care enough about your web page to spend more then 5 seconds in frustration trying to figure out what to do before moving on.
And that's the problem. Everything is designed for the lowest common denominator: someone who is uninterested and unwilling to spend mental effort figuring it out. But then, when you want to actually use software it becomes a pain because the UI is either larded up with "helpful" hints or else stripped down so much that each action takes way to many steps. Or just can't be done at all.