Does your user need a crash course in UX?

UX folk love UX patterns.

Give us a good, done-by-everyone else direction and we will gobble that pie, burp Jakob’s Law and take a happy nap ??

Which isn’t such a bad thing. Mostly ??

Things get sticky when we begin to believe that these patterns are the universal truth. That even a blind man and his dog would get it. We stop taking the effort to explain what’s required and are soon building interfaces that everyone understands;?if everyone was us. ??

Take the classic radio button versus checkbox pattern:

?? If the user can select only one option, use radio buttons

?? If multiple items can be picked, use checkboxes

Nothing could be simpler and you are a fool to think otherwise.

Except this isn’t exactly taught in primary school and most people would not realise that a checkbox meant they could have selected 6 toppings for their acai bowl instead of just 1.

The user isn’t supposed to guess. We are supposed to tell.

Honestly, if we changed our designations from designers to tellers, I’m pretty sure we’d get a lot better at what we do.

Should we never rely on the common sense that comes with universal patterns? And the speed of use that they afford the user?

No, you should.

But don’t always assume. You are better off spelling it out.

And if you are not sure, try this litmus test;

1. Make a dummy radio button list with ingredients to a sundae/ramen bowl/sandwich

2. Title it just “Choose” and show it to your folks, friends or your security guard

3. And feel their frustration as they click one, then click another and for the love of all things holy can’t figure out why their first choice vanished. Been there, felt that.

The next time you are making a list, try these hints:

1. When the user can select only one option:

2. When the user can select multiple options

Published in Bootcamp on 10 July 2021. Connect with me on Medium.

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