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Tip: Save your users 15+ seconds of their day

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Robby Russell

Posts: 981
Nickname: matchboy
Registered: Apr, 2005

Robby Russell is the Founder & Executive Director PLANET ARGON, a Ruby on Rails development firm
Tip: Save your users 15+ seconds of their day Posted: Jan 31, 2008 11:25 AM
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Original Post: Tip: Save your users 15+ seconds of their day
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Since understanding the context is so important when designing interfaces, I wanted to point out one of those things that caused me to shake my head at.

When logging into our Basecamp account this afternoon (via openid)... I was presented the following helpful notice.

know your user
Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

What’s amusing in this scenario… is that I’m sure that Basecamp knows that I’m logged in via openid and it is, in fact, displaying the OpenBar across the top of the page. Yet, it’s making this helpful recommendation that I’m obviously already aware of.

What harm is there? Well, in this scenario, I caught it and thought, “wow, this isn’t helpful or informative.” Over time, it’s these short-lived experiences that affect our overall perceptions of the product.

When we’re designing and developing applications, we must be very consistent with how we communicate with our audience. We don’t need to provide them information that isn’t relevant to them.

I’m not picking on Basecamp here, I’m sure that they have great intentions with this, but as a developer, I know that it doesn’t take a whole lot of extra work to avoid small problems like this, which could lead your people to feel like you’re not being respectful of their time.

Saving customers 15-30 seconds is something that we can quantify.

  • 100 customers = 25-50 minutes
  • 1,000 customers = ~4-8 hours
  • 10,000 customers = 40-80 hours
  • etc…

Just a little reminder that it’s easy for us to overlook things like that can make a difference.

Read: Tip: Save your users 15+ seconds of their day

Topic: If They IM'd: Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton Previous Topic   Next Topic Topic: Stranded at the airport? Don’t forget Rule 240

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