Can you know your users?

Making info intuitive for everyone feels like an impossible task. I think that’s what makes info architecture so hard, and also User Experience design.

They say ‘know your users’ - the more you know the easier it will be to make a great product for them, the more likely they’ll use it. How to make sure users actually use your product? I’ve read articles stating “Easy and Delightful” is the key. This rings true.

But what’s easy for some is not easy for others. Same for delight.

This is something I learned in teaching. In order to make sure learners actually learn, a great teacher tailors flexible lesson plans, adding in both easier tasks for the base level and harder tasks for more advanced students. And she learns about her students, so that the material and examples used are more interesting (delightful).

This is hard work, and it takes years of teaching a subject to become efficient at lesson planning. This is one reason I think that “know your users” may be the most difficult part of making a software product nowadays, and I advocate for User Research on even the smallest of budgets.