The Unlikely Lesson My Bike Taught Me About People
The Unlikely Lesson My Bike Taught Me About People
By chris danilo on Aug 15, 2018 05:00 am
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I just bought a new bike computer.
It’s the little gadget that sits on the handle bars and tells you your speed.
Anyway, I opened the box and look what I saw:
Do you see this huge piece of paper?
Look at the size of it compared to my bike.
These are the setup instructions.
It took me 10 minutes to read this thing and figure out how to program it for mph, and a 24hr clock.
But wait, it’s not rocket surgery.
So why all this reading!?
This is a classic example of how frustrating documentation is.
This documentation is here instead of the developers of the bike computer just building something that makes sense without instructions—this is called “intuitive.”
I’m paying the price, as the end user, for bad design.
But, Chris, how is this relevant to me? I’m not a designer of any kind.
The point isn’t about the mechanics of the computer, the point is about how the designers weren’t focused on the end user.
You can take this approach in ANYthing you do.
Let’s take writing an email for example.
Most people read emails on their phones and most busy people get hundreds of emails a day.
How does this translate?
Write in quick, easy to read sentences. Use bullets. Hit the return key a lot and avoid big blocks of text.
Reply here if you have more ideas of how to put this into action.
The more we share our approaches and examples, the faster we can improve.
2 Minute Action:
Who is your end user?
Students? iOS users? Chefs? Painters? Cyclists? LEGO enthusiasts?
Thinking about how painful the experience is for your end user, how can your interaction with them easier?
How else might you improve your interaction with them?
Hit reply and let me know.
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