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Why I no longer care what people “like” or “don’t like”
In design, these phrases can be misleading
In UX and product design, “like,” and “don’t like” are overvalued and can mislead design decisions. Early in my career, someone saying, “I like it!” encouraged me to feel satisfied with a design that actually didn’t address business goals or diverse user needs. “I don’t like…” led me to changing a design repeatedly in an attempt to blindly figure out what they do “like.”
- I like dark mode. Great! Now, should we change the default theme to light text on a dark background?
- I don’t like pop-ups. Oh no! Should we remove all of our pop-ups?
Maybe, maybe not. The problem with these statements is that they have no context, so they don’t convey why people liked or disliked the design.
Across social media sites, I see people posting two design concepts (A/B) and asking others, “Which do you like better?” The comments are filled with responses of “I like X better” without any contextual information. However, the responses should be flooded with people asking about the business goals, the product’s users, and any other situational details.
User experiences are a consequence of their internal state, the characteristics of the designed system and the context within which the interaction occurs.
— Marc Hassenzahl & Noam Tractinsky¹
Context is everything
What people “like” and “don’t like” is based on contextual factors. Are they concerned about privacy while accessing the app on a public computer? Is their social identity unaccounted for? What is their motivation for using the product? Did they encounter a system error? Are they completing a cooperative task that depends on input from others? Are they stressed by limited time?
The User Experience Contextual Scale² lists the following types of context as the most relevant to impacting interaction design:
- Physical context: location, environment, device…
- Social context: culture, language, identity…
