The Viral Tweet.
Debunking the Bad Design of one of the most used everyday products and the Unforeseen #userbehavior associated with it, Which erupted a big #meme war on #twitter among the most influential political parties of #India.
This man is a genius 🙌😀 pic.twitter.com/ube86kh5aq
— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) October 5, 2022
UX design assumptions are a common problem in product design, as designers often rely on their own experiences and knowledge to inform their design decisions. While this approach can be effective in some cases, it can also lead to designs that are not well-suited to the needs and perspectives of the target users. For example, a designer might assume that users are familiar with a specific technology or interface, only to discover that this assumption is incorrect during user testing.
According to a Survey by Inc.com
92% of respondents checked social media on the phone in the past month, 31% stayed in the bathroom longer than necessary to finish activity on their phone
But do we take account of these scenarios during the design of our digital products? Not likely right? This means that some design decisions turn out to be wrong when the product gets into the hands of actual users which arises due to some unanticipated user behaviours.
Unforeseen user behaviours can also arise when users interact with products in unexpected ways. For example, a user might perform a task in a different order than intended, or they might use a feature in a way that was not anticipated by the designer.
All conceivable human behaviour cannot be catered for and there will be some just too bizarre to ever anticipate and fix. But there are certain types of error that can be predicted and, to some extent, designed for, to ensure the user experience isn’t compromised too much by their occurrence.
Errors happen and unintended actions
are inevitable. ?
They are a common occurrence in usability tests and are the result of problems in a product design/interface and imperfect human actions. It is valuable to have some idea about what these are, how frequently they occur, and how severe their impact is.
Don Norman has written extensively about slips and mistakes in The Design of Everyday Things and can be categorized into 2 broad causes of human errors.
Slips:
Slips are the classic unintended action a user makes while trying to do something on an interface even though the goal is correct (e.g., a typo).
Mistakes:
Mistakes are made when users have goals that are inappropriate for the current problem or task; even if they take the right steps to complete their goals, the steps will result in an error.
The image shown above is a classic example of slip
Slips often happen when users are quite familiar with the goal that they seek to achieve and with the procedure for accomplishing that goal, but accidentally they take the wrong step when trying to achieve it. Often, when executing tasks that are well practiced, we tend to allocate fewer attentional resources, and, as a result, we can “slip” and perform the wrong action. Thus, ironically, slip-type mistakes often are made by expert users who are very familiar with the process at hand; unlike new users who are still learning how to use the system, experts feel that they have mastered the task and need to pay less attention to its actual completion.
Strategies for preventing slips are centered around gently guiding users so that they stay on the right path and have fewer chances of slipping. Assist users by providing the needed level of precision, and encourage users to check for errors.
How to avoid Unconscious Slips?
Include Helpful Constraints
While it’s not always a good idea to limit users’ choices, in cases where there are clear rules that define acceptable options, it can be a good strategy to constrain the types of input or a specific way to perform a task.
In this classic case including a handlebar to constrain users from using it in a very specific way.
Choose Good Defaults:
Another type of helpful suggestion is the good default. Especially when users have to perform repetitive actions, or in situations where they need to use precision, start by offering reasonable defaults that are likely to fit their real-world goals, and then allow them to refine their choices
Use Real Data During Prototyping
When we design with real data, we make more informed design decisions, knowing fully well the constraints and edge cases that could likely break our design during implementation. This makes us take further considerations into how we design our layouts, navigations, modules and interaction patterns.
Conclusion:
Slips are common errors that happen when users do not pay full attention to a task or have small memory lapses. Preventing errors of this type is largely a matter of reducing burdens on users and guiding them when precision is required by using design patterns that communicate how they work to users.