The User
By Kristoffer Bohmann, Bohmann Usability
The User. When I use the concept the user, I mean a living person who is using a website or other user interface. "The user gets lost." "The user hits the backbutton." "The user cannot buy the shirt." And so on. Basic insights about Web user behavior include:
- Most users have limited time to do the things, they want to do online. As a result, users will spend very little time on your site. Minutes, not hours.
- Specific goals are pursued by users. The goal may be very broad (e.g., what are the latest top stories) or very narrow (e.g., what is the speed limit on French highways). In any case, goals are followed. Successful sites know the goals of their users and make it easy to carry them out.
- Users make errors. Especially when the interface is hard to figure out.
- Users differ in terms of Internet and technology experience. Still, assuming that Internet freaks will use advanced features on a site is often a mistake since users seldom take the time to learn advanced features.
- Language barriers matters, especially if you write in English and your users speak English as their second language. Comprehension errors are more frequent among such users. Accordingly, such sites should write English in a language that is easily understood.
- Users direct their attention in highly selective ways. For instance, they scan articles and news stories as opposed to reading every word. This force sites to make options extremely obvious since less obvious interface elements often is ignored.
Read more: GVU's 10th WWW User Survey.
Kristoffer Bohmann
