One of the biggest headaches of working on digital projects is dealing with the assumptions that people make about how the web works.
Here’s a few of the old pesky regulars that I’ve heard, I don’t know, about 15,000 times?
- People don’t scroll
- If something isn’t on the homepage, no-one will be able to find it
- We should fill that white space with something
- We should just ask our users what they want and they’ll tell us
If I had a dollar for each time I’d heard the above, etc. So that’s why the site UXMyths is one that I go back to time and time again. In fact I have a pre written email saved in my Drafts folder with a link to the piece on the scrolling myth above, it comes up so many times.
UXMyths tackles a long list of assumptions about the way people use the web, with research and further reading to back up each of their helpful debunkings. It’s really interesting just to read through to enhance your own understanding. Myth #29, ‘People are rational‘ is particularly fascinating and useful for so much more than web projects.
UXMyths: I recommend that you bookmark the hell out of it.