4 ms·

Would you treat a customer this way? During the interview Joe was "stressed," "taxed," "frustrated," and "confused." He was asked to try and fail to do things

Would you treat a customer this way? During the interview Joe was "stressed," "taxed," "frustrated," and "confused." He was asked to try and fail to do things the author already knew he wouldn't be able to do. Repeatedly. The author was surprised that he would take failures personally, and described ending the interview as "cut[ting] Joe a break." Really very generous, to cut Joe a break from the interview he volunteered for. There is a serious lack of empathy on display in this post. Joe deserves an apology.

mechanical_fish 15y ago
There is a serious lack of empathy on display in this post. What are you talking about? Everything you know about Joe, you are learning from this post. If the author has no empathy, how come she can describe Joe's emotional state so accurately that it practically moves you to tears? And I think you need to make allowances for the genre. This essay is a bit impersonal because it's a designer reporting to an audience of designers. The tone is necessarily a bit cold and analytical. I wouldn't assume that the actual interview went down like this, just as doctors don't talk to cancer patients the way they talk to other doctors, engineers don't talk to civilians the way they talk to other engineers, and sausage makers have secret ingredients because... you really don't want to know what they are. Just enjoy the flavor. As for whether it is cruel to cause someone stress by asking them to use a UX that frustrates them: Well, maybe. But if you have ever shipped a product, you have caused such pain. Not one customer at a time, but wholesale: Dozens, hundreds, thousands or even millions of people have cursed your product. Such is the tragedy of the mass market: You can make the delight scale, but the frustration also scales. The authors of, say, Word didn't want to frustrate anyone to the point of tears, but every day thousands of people are so frustrated, because bugs are inevitable, and because no design can do everything, and because people don't always understand the mismatch between your product and their goals, and because computers are less personal than the least personable of persons.
hvs 15y ago
He wasn't working with a child, he was interviewing an adult who was free to leave at any time. Learning new things can be difficult. If anything Joe probably came away from this having learned something new (and is now able to receive discounts from one of his favorite restaurants). There's no reason to infantilize Joe.
- neurolysis 15y ago
  *she
- mnemonicsloth 15y ago
  I'm saying that if someone volunteers their time to help you, they deserve the same respect that you would give a client. I don't think that's infantilizing anyone. But you're ignoring the most important part of my post. If Joe had hired you to do an important job, and you needed the information the OP collected to get that job done, would you have gotten that information the way the OP did?
brown9-2 15y ago
What would you have had the tester do differently? Dismiss the test subject right away since he had never used a computer and found trying to figure tasks out too difficult?
- mnemonicsloth 15y ago
  Suppose Joe had been cut off from civilization for the last 35 years and the two of you have agreed on a very large fee that he will pay you if you can get him back up to speed on what he'd missed. Would you treat him the way the OP did? Would you ever even use the phrase "too difficult" ?
  - gfodor 15y ago
    If I have yet to learn long division well, the equation 129328 / 2983 might very well be too difficult for me. This isn't an insult.
andos 15y ago
As is usual when performing user testing, the OP rewarded Joe in the end. They taught him how to use email and registered his bakery card. Joe volunteered and could have said enough! at any time. The ones to blame for Joe's stress and frustration are us software authors. We are already treating our customers that way.
- marshray 15y ago
  We software authors certainly deserve the great majority of the blame. But this user test, while fascinating, is somewhat artificial and it's probably not helpful to exaggerate its importance. Joe was not a clean slate, he clearly was bringing in all kinds of baggage. He was ashamed he didn't already know. He'd already experienced failure with the discount card email experience. He had someone literally looking over his shoulder and taking notes on his failure. I'd feel kind of stressed out about it too! Furthermore, he was given a specific task (locating a restaurant) with a completely general-purpose computer interface and absolutely zero help in figuring it out. Certainly this situation does occur in real life, but is it common enough that it should drive the design of user interface? The mall probably already has a kiosk for those users with a touchscreen UI. It would be silly to expect every user to use nothing but a touchscreen interface. Oh wait a minute...

mechanical_fish 15y ago

There is a serious lack of empathy on display in this post. What are you talking about? Everything you know about Joe, you are learning from this post. If the author has no empathy, how come she can describe Joe's emotional state so accurately that it practically moves you to tears? And I think you need to make allowances for the genre. This essay is a bit impersonal because it's a designer reporting to an audience of designers. The tone is necessarily a bit cold and analytical. I wouldn't assume that the actual interview went down like this, just as doctors don't talk to cancer patients the way they talk to other doctors, engineers don't talk to civilians the way they talk to other engineers, and sausage makers have secret ingredients because... you really don't want to know what they are. Just enjoy the flavor. As for whether it is cruel to cause someone stress by asking them to use a UX that frustrates them: Well, maybe. But if you have ever shipped a product, you have caused such pain. Not one customer at a time, but wholesale: Dozens, hundreds, thousands or even millions of people have cursed your product. Such is the tragedy of the mass market: You can make the delight scale, but the frustration also scales. The authors of, say, Word didn't want to frustrate anyone to the point of tears, but every day thousands of people are so frustrated, because bugs are inevitable, and because no design can do everything, and because people don't always understand the mismatch between your product and their goals, and because computers are less personal than the least personable of persons.

hvs 15y ago

He wasn't working with a child, he was interviewing an adult who was free to leave at any time. Learning new things can be difficult. If anything Joe probably came away from this having learned something new (and is now able to receive discounts from one of his favorite restaurants). There's no reason to infantilize Joe.

neurolysis 15y ago
*she
mnemonicsloth 15y ago
I'm saying that if someone volunteers their time to help you, they deserve the same respect that you would give a client. I don't think that's infantilizing anyone. But you're ignoring the most important part of my post. If Joe had hired you to do an important job, and you needed the information the OP collected to get that job done, would you have gotten that information the way the OP did?

brown9-2 15y ago

What would you have had the tester do differently? Dismiss the test subject right away since he had never used a computer and found trying to figure tasks out too difficult?

mnemonicsloth 15y ago
Suppose Joe had been cut off from civilization for the last 35 years and the two of you have agreed on a very large fee that he will pay you if you can get him back up to speed on what he'd missed. Would you treat him the way the OP did? Would you ever even use the phrase "too difficult" ?
- gfodor 15y ago
  If I have yet to learn long division well, the equation 129328 / 2983 might very well be too difficult for me. This isn't an insult.

andos 15y ago

As is usual when performing user testing, the OP rewarded Joe in the end. They taught him how to use email and registered his bakery card. Joe volunteered and could have said enough! at any time. The ones to blame for Joe's stress and frustration are us software authors. We are already treating our customers that way.

marshray 15y ago
We software authors certainly deserve the great majority of the blame. But this user test, while fascinating, is somewhat artificial and it's probably not helpful to exaggerate its importance. Joe was not a clean slate, he clearly was bringing in all kinds of baggage. He was ashamed he didn't already know. He'd already experienced failure with the discount card email experience. He had someone literally looking over his shoulder and taking notes on his failure. I'd feel kind of stressed out about it too! Furthermore, he was given a specific task (locating a restaurant) with a completely general-purpose computer interface and absolutely zero help in figuring it out. Certainly this situation does occur in real life, but is it common enough that it should drive the design of user interface? The mall probably already has a kiosk for those users with a touchscreen UI. It would be silly to expect every user to use nothing but a touchscreen interface. Oh wait a minute...