The gift to see ourselves as others see us
UX frees organisations from "blunders and foolish notions" by helping them to see themselves through customers' eyes and needs.
Despite dying at just 37, Scotland’s national poet Rabbie Burns left behind a remarkable body of work, much of which remains woven into Scottish culture to this day. Writing primarily in the speech and spelling of rural Scotland, he wrote about the universal themes of life, love and nature. His work had a satirical element to it too, and he loved little more than mocking religious hypocrisy, social pretension, and class snobbery.
His poem ‘To A Louse – On seeing one on a lady's bonnet at church’ targets such human foibles directly, where he draws parallels between a louse crawling along a pompous lady’s bonnet and the futility of human ego and vanity. Its final verse starts with the words:
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us;
To see oursels as ithers see us!
(Oh, would some Power give us the gift;
To see ourselves as others see us!)
Burns continues by exploring the benefit of such a gift:
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
(It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:)
A mere 219 years after Burns wrote the poem on the dangers of personal vanity, Bain & Co wrote their oft-quoted 2005 ‘Closing the Delivery Gap’ report exposing the dangers of corporate vanity, which also explored the gap between how we see ourselves and how others see us. While compiling their report, they surveyed 362 firms, 80% of whom said they provided a “superior customer experience”. How many customers agreed with their self-assessment? 8%! Organisations overestimated how they were seen through the eyes of their customers by a whopping 1,000%.
As the Bard warns us such hubris can lead only to blunders and foolish notions.
One of the central promises of UX is that it helps organisations see themselves as others see them. It empowers businesses to design real solutions which solve real problems for real humans. It helps them see their place in the world and understand their actual relationship with their customers.
One of the central promises of UX is that it helps organisations see themselves as others see them. It empowers businesses to design real solutions which solve real problems for real humans. It helps them see their place in the world and understand their actual relationship with their customers.
Users are obsessive about getting s—t done
Organisations regularly underestimate the ruthlessly utilitarian mindset of their users. They are on your site to get stuff done, they want to find content, transact with a service and buy things online. Their emotional contract is straightforward, “I will give you my attention if you don’t waste my time.”
The theorists tell us that our mobile phone home screen is our most intimate digital space and the apps which find their way on to that space are closely connected with our lives. Have a look at your home screen now – and consider how you use the apps on there. You have put them in that space because they help you get stuff done, they help you manage and live your life.
Digital winners invest time understanding the core needs of their users and build digital products around them.
“Hopefully most of our users don’t think about or notice us. They just use the service and get on with their lives.”
Users hold the balance of power
The internet has flattened marketplace hierarchy and has swung the power pendulum towards the user throughout the buying and consideration process. 50 years ago, when someone was buying a car, the person selling the car knew much more about the product than the person buying the car. 40 years ago, when someone was buying a hi-fi system, the person selling the hi-fi knew much more about the product than the person buying the hi-fi. 30 years ago, when someone was buying a service, it was very difficult for them to find out what the service was really like, beyond having to listen to what the salesman told them.
Today, users have access to vast amounts of objective and factual information, third-party reviews and immediate access to your competitors’ alternative offering. Your users are in firm control of the transaction and they are drunk on the power.
Digital winners understand that clarity trumps persuasion, so they communicate with their users, not at them.
Users would typically prefer to be doing something else than be on your site
The importance of features vs goals is well rehearsed and explained elsewhere. Software has features but users have goals. This simple observation is a helpful way for designers to understand user motivations, and the environment within which the software exists. But as well as helping designers create better software, it also reminds us that software is virtually always a means to an end – and that users would prefer to be closer to the end than they actually are.
Digital winners design digital products that empower users to quickly do something else.
In 2014, Russell Davies was Creative Director of Government Digital Services and played a leading role in the design of gov.uk, delivering over 600 public services online to the UK public. He was interviewed by Econsultancy that year and was asked the following question “GDS has received praise from many quarters for its work over the last few years, but what do your users think?” His answer revealed why the site was performing so well, usage was increasing exponentially and user satisfaction was consistently high “Hopefully most of our users don’t think about or notice us. They just use the service and get on with their lives.”
