Here is a little test of reasonableness of a design I call the Einstein Test.
Find the most qualified user for the design in question. It could be someone who’s used the product for years or who’s written a book about it, or who is on the engineering team.
Show this expert user the design and see if he or she can make sense of it as you are expecting regular users to.
If they can, so far so good. Continue designing or test with less apt users.
If not, your design has failed the Einstein test. The most qualified users of your product are incapable of figuring it out on their own, and therefore, there is no hope that regular people will be able to. Go back to the drawing board. If it fails the low bar, it is certain to fail the high bar.
This test is slightly counter-intuitive; common practice has it that you should test against typical users, not experts. But there are a surprising number of designs out there that fail the Einstein test.
What examples springs to your mind? Did you have any experience with doing something simple simple that you, as an expert computer user, should have been a snap? Please comment with examples.
