Design
Photoshop Tennis
Now that I am a full-time Front End Developer I don’t have the opportunity to do very much actual design. I didn’t wanna let my “skills” slide so I started playing Photoshop Tennis with my friend Nairica. Last winter we completed a typical photo-based round of Photoshop Tennis that you can check out in the Photoshop Tennis section of my portfolio. We decided to take it in a different direction this time and last week we finished our brush-based round of Photoshop Tennis. Check it out.
“Can my Mom use it?”
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- June 6th, 2007
- Posted In:
- CSS & XHTML, Design
- Comments:
- Comments Off
It happens all too often when working on projects of all kinds, someone who has read the beginners guide to usability asks the question “Can my Mom use it?”. While it is a step in the right direction to ask questions about usability as early on in a project as possible, I would like to see this particular question banished from usability discussions. Unless of course you are designing a website dedicated to menopause or Rod Stewart.
To completely understand where I am coming from I should explain exactly what was meant every time I’ve heard someone ask “Can my Mom use it?”. Each time, they were referring to a lady over 50 years of age who might spend less than an hour a week online, aside from checking work email. She doesn’t need a computer and might even be of the opinion that spending too much time on a computer can be dangerous. She’s afraid of security risks whenever she’s asked for even the most basic personal information online and she has trouble understanding what an iPod is.
Your Mom is not your target audience. If you dumb it down for your Mom you will be dumbing it down for your target audience. Instead of cool new ideas your website will be full of old basic junk. It won’t be something people talk about, it will just be boring.
Instead of asking “Can my Mom use it?” ask, “Can my target audience use it?”, “Is it easy to use?”, “Does it degrade gracefully?”. Ask these questions early on when you are still wire framing and, if you can, try testing the site with a few members of your target audience.
P.S. I bet my Mom could figure anything out if she knew it would make me happy and make her look cool.
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