A Designers Perspective: Consider the User to be an Idiot

idiotIn any design project, the designer should always consider that the user of his design is an idiot. It is not my intention to offend anybody. This is just a design process that need to be followed in order to produce a usable product regardless of the target clientele.

Did you ever thought that most personal devices now are considered smart devices? Why do we have now smart cars? In another view, we may call it – user friendly, why? Because, designers consider their customers as idiots. By doing so, designer will be able to produce a product which will be usable and marketable.

In engineering perspective, designers should do likewise. Don’t presume that the installer, constructor or operator knows what you are thinking as a designer. It is a fact that there are unwritten acceptable industry standards but, as a designer, would you rely on these practices? If you say so, I will ask you, how would you expect to control the outcome of your project? There may come a time in one point of your project execution that you are telling to yourself, “that is not the way I want the equipment to be installed”. The installer will just answer back, that is how I interpret your design. In this case, you can’t do anything about it unless you want to pay more.

Better details presented during design does not mean your installers don’t know what they are doing but you just wanted them to know what outcome you wanted. Treating them as idiots is the best method to implement this.