Week 1 Reading Assignment

In chapters 1 and 2 of this book, I have discovered that things that appear to be common sense to me are not to others, which I never really thought about before. But this book is doing a great job of showing me that even the simplest of things can be misunderstood and misinterpreted, such as the Yahoo search bar example. I was shocked when I read that most people actually think that a search engine is the internet search bar and continue on a regular basis to type full web addresses into the search bar not knowing any different on a day to day basis. Wow.

This got me wondering how I figured out how to use the net, (and I still don't think I fully understand all the wonderful things that the net can expose one to) and I realized that I learned from watching my friends use it differently to the way I used it and from watching them, I changed the way I used it to become more effective and efficient for me. Do these other people not have friends? Are they old? Why do have they not figured out a simpler way to navigate the web? Maybe they are not frequent users.

As I continue to read through the chapter the author brings up a good point. If the method works, don't fix it. The way we use things may change if simpler methods cross our paths but if not, then there is nothing to change, in every persons own head.

Why even bother to focus on simplicity and design something that you think is going to be easy and effective if people are not even going to use it the way it was intended? And as he answers, it is the funny clogg workings of the world. We design because it betters the chances of the site being more effective and having a higher chance of return users.