Users Don't Like to Read

We assume, when writing, that most software users and web site visitors don't want to read. And without being unkind, they don't like to think. At least, not so they scratch their heads and wonder, "What's going on here?"

Most individuals plunge right in using software, and certainly web sites don't come with instructions. This is the "paradox of the active user." This is, to quote usability expert Jakob Nielson, "Users ... are motivated to get started and to get their immediate task done: they don't care about the system as such and don't want to spend time up front on getting established..."

"The 'paradox of the active user' is a paradox because users would save time in the long term by taking some initial time to optimize the system and learn more about it. But that's not how people behave in the real world, so ... we must design for the way users actually behave."⁽¹⁾

Users don't read the documentation or directions until they get stuck. If you are like us, when you can't figure something out, or the product doesn't work as expected, then you go to the documentation. Still, you don't want to read.

Graduated shading is used to visually indicate the degree of localization in this web site content concept map. Each country and language-specific home page thumbnail is hyperlinked (in the final deliverable 1.6 MB) to the detailed localization analysis for the country. No Table of Contents needed. Modem Media (enlarged JPG - 228K)

No one reads. Who has the time? People want to—

• crack open the index
• look for visual cues
• glance at the table of contents
• click on the Find button
• rely on consistent navigation
• scan for their keywords
• expect labels that meaningfully describe content
• use the Search button
• flip through it
• check the status bar
• browse the site map
• look over the page headings
• refer to the URL in the address toolbar
• review content headings

—and, finding the specific kernel of information they need, go back to work.

In other words, given a hard copy of a well-written manual, the user should be able to plunk the book off the shelf, whiff through it 'till he finds what he wants—hopefully before he forgets what he is looking for—and then plunkit back on the shelf. (In the online world, the action should be equally swift. You might call this action click click back back .) This is why design is as important as writing.

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⁽¹⁾Source: Carroll, J.M. and Rosson, M.B. (1987). The paradox of the active user. In J.M. Carroll (Ed.), Interfacing Thought: Cognitive Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.