Then, there are the users. They are different from us. Users must be assumed to favor full visualization, with 75% feeling significant discomfort with abstraction (Myers, Tog on Interface). This majority has spacial and motor memories that tend to be good, while their ability to rote-memorize and to form complex mental models may be limited, and, in any case, they find those particular tasks unpleasant.

If you require a short url to link to this article, please use http://ignco.de/420

If you liked this, you'll love my book. It's called Designed for Use: Create Usable Interfaces for Applications and the Web. In it, I cover the whole design process, from user research and sketching to usability tests and A/B testing. But I don't just explain techniques, I also talk about concepts like discoverability, when and how to use animations, what we can learn from video games, and much more.

You can find out more about it (and order it directly, printed or as a DRM-free ebook) on the Pragmatic Programmers website.

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written by
Lukas Mathis

Hi. My name is Lukas Mathis. I studied Computer Science/Software Engineering and Ergonomics/Usability at ETH Zürich. I work as a software engineer and user interface designer for a swiss software company creating process management software. I've written a book about usability. My first computer was a Performa 450, my first programming language was HyperTalk, my first electric guitar was a cheap Peavey, my first videogame was a VCS 2600 and my current snowboard is from Lib Tech. I live in a small cottage in a remote part of the Swiss Alps, and you can reach me at or on twitter.

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