Said No Normal User, Ever

Remember that there are already too many things out there. We don’t need more things, we need things that work well.

I’ve recently been reading Smashing Magazine’s Smashing Book #3 and found Aral Balkan’s chapter Mobile Considerations in User Experience Design: “Web or Native?” quite intriguing. His arguments might even persuade you to believe the web isn’t the platform of the future so many have predicted it to be, but I won’t argue that point here.

Balkan’s article reminded me of our feverish platitudes in the tech world that often blind us to users’ needs, wants, and expectations. Talk of open vs. closed systems, why the web is better because of it’s universal accessibility, and other arguments may influence why a developer chooses one system or platform over another. However, the rationale and justification that informs the choices we make as creators of technology rarely bears any weight with incognizant users of technology.

As Balkan points out, who cares what platform your application runs on if it runs badly? Ok some developers and tech evangelists probably care, but outside of them who cares?

“Crap, my widget crashed and lost all my form data, but that’s ok. These guys built this app using open technology of the web so I’m gonna give this product a break and keep using it.” Said no normal user, ever.