- UX slogan number 19 is clarify,
don't mystify.
We mainly say this in reference to UX design
but it's also a leading guideline for the development
of our own NNG content, such as these videos.
Nielsen Norman Group wants
to make user experience concepts clear, precise,
understandable, and actionable.
We don't want people to think of UX
as a mysterious discipline with secret handshakes
and best that only a few initiates can use.
UX is not convoluted.
It's about making things easy.
Our most important method is qualitative user testing
which you can do with five users.
Of course, the perfect usability study requires some nuance.
For example, you need to encourage users
to keep thinking out loud while not biasing them
by saying too much yourself.
But the basics, honestly, are very simple
and we can explain them to everybody.
That's the way we clarify UX rather than mystifying it.
The slogan applies even more
to your actual user interface designs.
Anything you put into the UI must clarify
the interaction, not mystify it.
Unfortunately, mysteries run rampant on websites.
The worst are the headlines
some sites run of the type, "You would not believe
what Celebrity X wore to last night's award gala."
Well, I would believe it if you told me
rather than keeping it a mystery.
The theory behind mystery design
is that you can wring more clicks out of your users
if you entice them without telling them
for sure what they'll get.
Unfortunately, this strategy often ends up frustrating users
who gradually will sour on your website
if they waste too much time clicking through
to disappointing pages.
Much better to lay out a strong information sent
such that people know what they'll get.
That leads to satisfied customers and more long-term use
as people learn that your website rewards their clicks.
The rule to clarify, not mystify also applies
to command names, feature descriptions, error messages
and everything else in a user interface.
It's not just that Menu items should say
what each command does.
The name should also make sense
to the users given their knowledge about computers
and about the domain of the application.
Most users are not engineers
and most users know much less about your application
than you do.
So names that may seem perfectly clear
to the design team could in fact,
end up mystifying users.
How to tell the difference
between clarification and mystification?
More user testing,
but your design will be less likely
to fail those usability studies
if you keep the goal in mind to clarify, don't mystify.