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(Sorry for the long post, I’m trying to explain but editing lazily. It’d be more concise if I had more time.) I’m not sure, what are you suggesting that it changes if apps become more customized or more customer oriented? Wouldn’t that only make understanding the users’ expectations and not writing them off as ridiculous even more important? I’m not entirely sure what you mean, like why the state of design of Google or Apple apps has much bearing on how to approach what you assume about customers - apart from the fact that it’s really helpful to understand the ecosystem of software and the UX elements that people have become accustomed to. Yes it’s harder to design phone apps that behave in fundamentally different ways or using fundamentally different interaction models than what people are used to. You might understand your idea is superior to what Google did, but when people reject it, that doesn’t mean people are insane, it means the opposite, that there’s a good reason for their expectations and that you and I might be insane for trying to fight the tide. I’m also not sure what it means to be “correct” about assuming people are insane. But to be clear, my argument is not that it’s incorrect, my argument is that it’s not helpful or constructive, and it can prevent you from self-reflection or improvement in a harmful way. Assuming people are insane is to reject a reasonable explanation, it’s a very (ironically) lazy way to rationalize not trying to understand. Under normal circumstances, with average people, people have expectations that are completely reasonable and come from a history of their experiences. If you assume they’re insane, what you’re really doing is willfully closing your own eyes to their context and shutting yourself off from seeking out what they want. It’s important to realize that people doing wacky things with your product is a result of differing expectations, and explore the sources of this discrepancy. Inside the gap there are a variety of reasons that include failure of the app builder to clearly state their expectations. If too many people are doing seemingly silly things, it might mean you haven’t made clear who your app is really for, and what it can or can’t do. Assuming you’ve done everything you can do, explained everything about your product clearly, assuming that it can’t be improved and that someone using it wrong is just crazy, that’s a pretty bad assumption and rarely if ever “correct”. |