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These are overall really accurate depictions of what life in UX is like. I do have a comment on this one: > “Users don’t read” > An overly used argument to c

by Zarel 7y ago

These are overall really accurate depictions of what life in UX is like. I do have a comment on this one: > “Users don’t read” > An overly used argument to convince clients and stakeholders to cut copy length in half. If you made this far to this article, you’re living proof that this statement is untrue. The real principle here is that users don't read anything that doesn't look like it will help them do what they're trying to do. In the case of the article: Sure, I read the article, because I wanted to read the article. But notice I didn't read the titlebar, the subtitle, the author, the nav, the footer, the newsletter subscription form... Someone reading copy probably wants to know something about your product. Depending on what they want to know, they might skim around the page looking for the most relevant thing – for instance, looking for a header named "Specs" when trying to find battery life. Making your copy shorter will certainly make that task easier and save their time, and it'll probably make it less likely that they'll decide they didn't want to know things about your product that much.

kbirkeland 7y ago
Honestly I skimmed the first part of the article and then checked the comments. It may be a design cliche, but it may be true. I didn't make it to that part.
- nkozyra 7y ago
  That was my first reaction. Though to be fair I didn't make it that far because the counterarguments to the cliches were not particularly deep or convincing.
- nevster 7y ago
  Ha, I read the first two or three, then shot right to the bottom and read that one. So yes, true in this n of 1.
capkutay 7y ago
More importantly...users don't read walls of text. this article was just a concise list of cliches and counters.
muzani 7y ago
I normally don't read the onboarding text of an app or a tutorial. It's usually saying things like "Click this next button to go to the next part".
csours 7y ago
> "Users don't read" I work on software, I read a lot. I also go to pre-release media screeners of movies - you wait in line for a while, and you get to see a movie a few days earlier. Anyway, the most recent movie pass (Detective Pokemon, really good by the way) had some red text in the middle. You had to redeem the pass for tickets at the theater before the screening, not wait in line. A LOT of people, including my movie buddy, did not read that red text. If you depend on your users to read something, you will be let down very often. If you depend on your users to read, you should back that up with some check.

by Zarel 7y ago

kbirkeland 7y ago

Honestly I skimmed the first part of the article and then checked the comments. It may be a design cliche, but it may be true. I didn't make it to that part.

nkozyra 7y ago
That was my first reaction. Though to be fair I didn't make it that far because the counterarguments to the cliches were not particularly deep or convincing.
nevster 7y ago
Ha, I read the first two or three, then shot right to the bottom and read that one. So yes, true in this n of 1.

capkutay 7y ago

More importantly...users don't read walls of text. this article was just a concise list of cliches and counters.

muzani 7y ago

I normally don't read the onboarding text of an app or a tutorial. It's usually saying things like "Click this next button to go to the next part".

csours 7y ago

> "Users don't read" I work on software, I read a lot. I also go to pre-release media screeners of movies - you wait in line for a while, and you get to see a movie a few days earlier. Anyway, the most recent movie pass (Detective Pokemon, really good by the way) had some red text in the middle. You had to redeem the pass for tickets at the theater before the screening, not wait in line. A LOT of people, including my movie buddy, did not read that red text. If you depend on your users to read something, you will be let down very often. If you depend on your users to read, you should back that up with some check.