Foolproofing

What if users don’t know? What if they accidentally delete something? They may not know the format. They may not read instructions. They need to be told where to go next…

Thus, we dumb down the experience and make it foolproof. Instead, if we trust that people are smart, we could have:

  • Visual cues and affordances instead of excessive text-based help.
  • Learnable interfaces — a path for a novice to become an expert.
  • Complex experiences that are not complicated.
  • Recovery mechanisms instead of confirmations.

People may be new to the product or domain, but they are not stupid.