Users are not stupid, but interfaces and designers can be unintuitive. While our cognitive abilities are designed for natural interactions, most digital devices work in unintuitive ways. As technologies increase possible artifacts and interactions, designers do not fully understand human abilities and limitations. Many modern interfaces are unnatural and difficult to learn, so designers should focus more on human factors through user research, testing, and guidelines informed by fields like psychology.

1. Are Users Really Stupid?On Intuitive Interface and Human Nature 18 Alan Kang jania902@gmail.com http://alankang.tistory.com http://twitter.com/alankang

2. Are users really stupid, or not?

3. http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/humor-i-will-use-google-before-asking-dumb-linux-question.html

4. “Users are stupid”215,000 results“Users are not stupid”115,000 results

5. Conclusion:According to Google, users are stupid.Thank you. Any questions?

6. Discussion:Why are they so stupid?

7. Discussion:How are they stupid? this stupid? or this stupid?

8. Discussion:How to blame users effectively?Art and science of blaming

9. THEY ARE NOT STUPID.

10. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things so easily.Such as…

11. Demo #1 http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BioMotionLab1.8.swf

12. Demo #1We can identify a biological motion from just a few moving dots. http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BioMotionLab1.8.swf

13. Demo #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKdThJ-eGwE

14. Demo #2 We can even grasp intentions and social interactions from simple shapes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKdThJ-eGwE

15. Demo #3 http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/landaudemo.mov

16. Demo #3We can recognize faces so quickly. Faces seem to immune from attentional blink. http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/landaudemo.mov

17. Demo #4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFPtc8BVdJk

18. Demo #4We unconsciously use visual cues to improve speech recognition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFPtc8BVdJk

19. Demo #5 nullmodel.egloos.com/2336282

22. Demo #5Our brain completes invisible parts of images. nullmodel.egloos.com/2336282

23. 15

24. 18

25. We have extraordinary abilities.

26. Where did you find such stupid users? http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010204.html

27. Press any key to continue… Finally, you can press ANY key!!

28. Why do we perform so badly with some artifacts?

29. While our cognitive/physical abilities designed for natural interactions, most digital devices work somehow unintuitive manner.

30. Demo #6Is a computer mouse intuitive? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzRziK-kZtQ

31. When you move your wireless mouse upper side, the cursor on your monitor moves accordingly.Move something horizontally and the other thing, which is not related physically, moves vertically?For 45 billion years there's no such thing exists at all.

32. Is a (conventional) touch screen intuitive?(No demo here, sorry)

33. When you touch iPhone, it gives you visual and auditory feedbacks, without tactile feedback.For 45 billion years there's no such thing exists at all. This guy definitely don’t know about the Haptic UI…

34. Is a desktop metaphor intuitive?(No demo here, sorry)

35. #1. GUI Objects are completely free from law of physics.#2. Why the hell is it called DIRECT manipulation? Who did this first? I did. (Ben Shneiderman)

36. Humans(and other animals) are quite good at learning but not designed as an universal learning machine.

37. In a series of studies John Garcia gave rats some food, and then several hours later he gave them a dose of radiation that made them sick. Although the nausea occurred several hours after they ate, the rats generally learned in a single trial never to eat that type of feed - seemingly responsible for their illness - again. http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Psychology-New-Science-Mind/dp/0205483380

38. When Garcia paired the nausea with buzzers or light flashes, however, he could not train the rats to avoid them. In other words, rats seem to come into the world "preprogrammed" to learn some things easily, such as to avoid foods linked with nausea, but find it extraordinarily difficult to learn other things. http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Psychology-New-Science-Mind/dp/0205483380

39. Some things are learned easily,but others are not.Some things are more humane,but others are not.Designers are forcing users to do inhumane things.

40. Users are not that stupid.Interfaces(and designers) are.

41. Why do users perform so badly with some artifacts? especially with digital devices?

42. Why do users perform so badly with some artifacts, especially with digital devices?

43. Here’s my speculation:

44. As our technologies grow, the range of possible artifacts(and interactions) enlarged greatly.

45. As our technologies grow, the range of possible artifacts(and interactions) enlarged greatly.

46. But we, designers, don't know our abilities and limits well enough yet. ?

47. But we, designers, don't know our abilities and limits well enough yet. ?

48. But we, designers, don't know our abilities and limits well enough yet. ?

49. Most artifacts based on modern technologies are unintuitive/unnatural and hard to learn/use. ?

50. All UIs are guilty until proven innocent. ?

51. What should we, as designers, do with this problem?

52. Focus on Human (over Artifacts) This guy definitely don’t know about UCD

53. We don’t know users  User Research / Usability TestingWe need frequent feedbacks  Agile MethodsWe need some guidelines  Patterns, Heuristics, OS GuidelinesThere’re cultural differences  Sociology, Anthropology…Something is missing here.

54. Humane Interface:Although users' task-related needs differ, your user population shares many common mental attributes. … interface designers can minimize their work by exploiting what is common to all humans with regard to interface-design requirements. The Humane Interface (Addison-Wesley, 2000)

55. Evolutionary Psychology:Why is the mind designed the way it is - that is, what causal processes created, fashioned, or shaped the human mind into its current form?How is the human mind designed - what are its mechanisms or component parts, and how are they organized?What are the functions of the component parts and their organized structure - that is, what is the mind designed to do?How does input from the current environment, especially the social environment, interact with the design of the human mind to produce observable behavior? http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Psychology-New-Science-Mind/dp/0205483380

56. ?

59. So What?

60. Thank you!