Your typical User – finally captured on Photo

Keep this picture in mind

After years of research looking for the typical end user I was finally successful. Hidden behind server log statistics, persona definitions, target audience screenings, user testing sessions and best effort anticipations on how the target customer will look like I was able to capture the Santa Claus of web design, the Deep Throat of e-commerce, the Mr. X of usability. Regardless on how your marketing department defines the target customer or how your user research crafts the persona(s), you should always keep this picture in mind!

Your Users (customers) are:

Impatient

Users hate to wait. Long loading times, flash intros, videos or audios that start dangling away automatically will drive them nuts. Blinking advertisements and popup windows will only add to their hatred.

Give them a nice and clean interface that outline important customer care words with high information scent. Speed matters!

Nasty

I dare to imaging how users talk when something goes wrong not to mention the absence of adequate error messages or hints and help to recover.

Avoid sources of error and offer useful hints on how to recover in the case of problems.

Demanding

Users don't read, they scan. Users don't want to wade through the bun to get to the meat. They are not willing to spend time and effort to sign up for something before they know what it is. They are not willing to pay for something that is free somewhere else.

Give users what they want in a reasonable way.

In a hurry

Users are specialists in judging a site within seconds of arriving there. Is it relevant to their goal? Is there anything else they might find interesting? Last call...

Translate the first impressions into meaningful interactions.

In control

Your users will never tell you that your page sucks and they will never complain that they couldn't find what they were looking for. They will simply leave and never come back!

You better get your top task right ;)

Remember the Grinch

Don't be fooled by the nice users during your user testing sessions, they would hate to hurt your feelings by cussing away about your useless system. They'd rather blame themselves, try to cope and manage the pain and save their mental outbreak for the pub at night. What are your experiences with the Grinch of web design?