Jon Stewart, at his recent Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, DC, noted that most people live their lives “just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often it’s something they do not want to do, but they do it. Impossible things get done every day that are only made possible by the little, reasonable compromises,” he said, referring to the small, daily acts of civility that lubricate the wheels of society.
Good user experience — user experience functioning at its highest level — is an act of civility too. And when we design things that are hard to use, too complex to understand at first glance, or with dark design patterns, we’re actually being uncivil to our neighbours, family and friends; the people who will actually use what we produce.
On a personal level, civility resides in our ability to look our fellow citizen in the eyes and recognize that, whatever minor annoyance or conflict we might be having with them, we trust in their innate goodness and desire to do the right thing; we recognize them as a person worthy of respect and treat them accordingly. At our best, we think of their needs before our own.
When it comes to civic design (the use of patterns to design buildings, towns, and places), we have to extend this goodwill towards the many; anticipating their many needs, desires, destinations, and goals. We want clear landmarks and signposts, public spaces that welcome us, streets that are neither too wide nor too narrow, civic buildings that inspire us — and that also have the right number of bathrooms.
Thankfully, civic designers have thousands of years’ worth of the built environment and observed human behaviour, expressed concretely as design patterns, urban plans and building codes, to help them achieve those goals. When they ignore them – as you can see in nearly any post-war suburb – you end up with places not worth caring about.
For the builders of websites and software, merely ticking off lists of functions will not produce something beautiful, usable, and well-loved. To create a site or app worth caring about, you’ve got to remember that there’s a real person out there that’s going to use it. Not a “consumer” or a “user,” but a citizen.
And they’re waiting for you to anticipate their needs, and – ideally – to enlighten, instruct and inspire them.
