25. Thinking About the User is Not Enough

Is it the same to make an online purchase when you have plenty of time and peace of mind as opposed to doing it against the clock and in the middle of the street?

This is just another example that helps us understand that, even when our user profile is clearly identified, what the product must solve and how it should solve it is conditioned by the context in which the user will carry out the task.

In real life, users are exposed to multiple situations with a variety of contexts in which they use our products.

Great experiences differ from mediocre ones mostly in two aspects:

The management of errors and alternative flows.

The extent to which they anticipate variable usage contexts.

What the product allows to be done, in a given context, for a defined user; that is what we must thoroughly understand and use to enhance people’s capabilities.

We must optimize our products so that they appropriately support multiple common usage contexts and not assume that our user has only one way of operating it.