Jacob Nielsen posts an interesting piece on mental models, and the problems that occur when a user’s mental model does not match that of the designer. Here’s the summary:
What users believe they know about a UI strongly impacts how they use it. Mismatched mental models are common, especially with designs that try something new.
We see this occasionally, as users struggle to complete a task that to us is obvious. The problem of course is that we KNOW TOO MUCH. It is obvious to us… because we built it… “OH MY GOD… how can they not see?
Of course the problem isn’t with the users, it’s with us. It’s hard to “unremember”. It’s hard to put ourselves back in the shoes of the “ignorant”.
(Fortunately we have Nick here as a backup… he’s ignorant of almost everything.)
