Hiding Behind the User

There is another factor that drives the usability movement: the cult of the user. Users are all things to all people in the world of usability - they can be customers who will take their customer loyalty to another website with one mouse click, individuals suffering at the hands of big businesses that refuse to display their prices clearly on their websites, or less able people suffering from everything from visual impairment to ignorance of basic browser functionality. Users provide an excellent means of winning an argument when participating in a web design discussion - the slightest suggestion that you have not got the users needs foremost in your mind can trump your case. Steve Krugs book Dont Make Me Think exemplifies the diminished view of the user, who is characterised in the book as being an impatient, harassed imbecile unable to cope with the slightest cognitive stress. The book is full of passages such as: [the user] should be able to "get it" - what it is and how to use it - without expending any effort thinking about it (7). This is fair enough, from a web design perspective, except when it is used to justify reducing interface design to the lowest common denominator. Unfortunately much of the usability literature, including Krugs book, capitalises on a highly conservative view of how technology can be taken forward. The widespread adoption of the arguments of Krug and Nielsen must be seen in this context.
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