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Here’s an inventory of my assumptions
If you’ve ever tried to miscommunicate, you’ve probably used assumptions. Of course, you’ve probably never tried to intentionally miscommunicate with someone — but that’s my making an assumption. Assumptions are these ideas that are expected to be true without evidence supporting them, and they keep weaseling their way into my design work.
They’re quick. They’re easy. They narrow the possibility space in such a way that lets me get to work on the more interesting parts of my garden of a design. But since they weasel their way in, undermining the foundations of what I’m designing, they end up corrupting the garden. With the weasel tunnels underneath, it becomes all too easy for the garden to collapse.
Over the past year in my current position, I’ve found myself making quite a few assumptions about the users I’m working for. And most of those assumptions, unsurprisingly, were wrong. They set up the design to collapse in on itself, just like underground weasel tunnels.
Here’s an inventory of assumptions I’ve made and discovered to be wrong over the past twelve months:
I have assumed that my end users have reliable access to internet connectivity. The reality is that they travel or attend conferences and experience signal jam and have sparing access to a laptop or a desk. When I expand my perception of my users’ internet access, I start to realize how this assumption confines the people I design for. By designing for users with sporadic internet access, I include not just my end users at conferences or at airports, but users whose work or home situations may not grant them the level of internet access found in most software companies’ offices. Disregarding that assumption increases inclusion. An inclusive design is more stable when the ground gets shaky.
I’ve assumed that my end users have enough domain knowledge to effectively leverage my company’s product. The reality is that most of our users don’t even know where to start! The on-boarding flow presented a huge opportunity to demonstrate the value of disproving this assumption through conversations with end users. When I account for the…
