Vlad, via the IxDA discussion list, asked:

“Don’t you think that the users know that if they click a drop-down box, they can type in the first letter of what they are looking for and the browser would select the first option that starts with that letter for them?”

First, I think (based on all the hours of usability tests I’ve been privy to, which is … well, a lot) that a small percentage of people have learned this at some point, and a small percentage of that small percentage remembers to use it … sometimes.

Second, I think that even the geeky among us sometimes move the mouse pointer to and click to focus a field that was already auto-focused.

Third, I think that even the supremely geeky among us wish most of the applications we deal with on a daily basis were easier to use.

Finally, I think that everyone makes mistakes, however small, and most of us do so extremely often.

Vlad posted this question to see if he could get away with not designing a suggest-as-you-type feature (type something in the search box for a living example). Very much to Vlad’s credit, at least he had the foresight to pose the question to a list of other interaction designers for a second (or twelfth) opinion.

What were you trying to justify the last time you made an assumption?

Posted by Robert on June 2nd, 2008