A delightful user experience should be as intuitive as answering a phone call. If users need to learn a multi-step process for a core feature, the product's design has failed to solve the problem simply.
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Reducing the number of clicks is a misguided metric. A process with eight trivially easy clicks is better than one with two fraught, confusing decisions. Each decision burns cognitive energy and risks making the user feel stupid. The ultimate design goal should be to prevent users from having to think.
The obsession with removing friction is often wrong. When users have low intent or understanding, the goal isn't to speed them up but to build their comprehension of your product's value. If software asks you to make a decision you don't understand, it makes you feel stupid, which is the ultimate failure.
Building delightful products isn't guesswork. A four-step process involves: 1) identifying functional and emotional user motivators, 2) turning them into opportunities, 3) ideating solutions and classifying them, and 4) validating them against a checklist for things like inclusivity and business impact.
The "Owner's Delusion" is the inability to see your own product from the perspective of a new user who lacks context. You forget they are busy, distracted, and have minimal intent. This leads to confusing UIs. The antidote is to consciously step back, "pretend you're a regular human being," and see if it still makes sense.
When designing critical processes like customer onboarding, frame the goal to make success inevitable. Ask: "How can we design this so it would be weird if the customer *didn't* get to their 'aha' moment?" This forces you to build a bullet train to value, rather than hope customers find it.
A large customer support organization signals that a product is too complex, hard to onboard, or buggy. Instead of optimizing the support function, companies should focus on improving the product to the point where extensive human support becomes unnecessary.
A one-size-fits-all onboarding process is ineffective. Customers have varying levels of technical proficiency; a power user may find excessive handholding annoying, while a novice needs it. The process must be flexible and tailored to the individual to avoid creating a frustrating experience.
When products offer too many configurations, it often signals that leaders lack the conviction to make a decision. This fear of being wrong creates a confusing user experience. It's better to ship a simple, opinionated product, learn from being wrong, and then adjust, rather than shipping a convoluted experience.
True expertise in training is demonstrated by simplifying complex processes, not by showcasing complexity. Friedrich's Law states that while people tend to make simple things complex, genius lies in making complex concepts simple and accessible for others to execute successfully.
Products like a joystick possess strong "affordance"—their design inherently communicates how they should be used. This intuitive quality, where a user can just "grok" it, is a key principle of effective design often missing in modern interfaces like touchscreens, which require learned behavior.
