Common Sense and Usability

There is a common misconception that usability equals common sense, but actually usability is more than common sense. Although the definition of usability is closely related to logical relevance and common sense, it is very unwise just to rely on common sense in ensuring the usability of a product.

Using common sense is not only unwise but sometimes also dangerously misleading. Take a simple example of an entrepreneur who wants to build a web site for his company. The first thing that he did was reading a book about authoring a web site. Having read the book, he bought a popular web site builder software.

He certainly enjoyed his new toy - put some flashy graphics, made some italics, used some gif animations, chose some bright colors, used the software's default frame structure, and did some other things that he considered "interactive" enough in "brightening" his web site.

So ??? What is wrong with that? Nothing is wrong. he used his common sense in developing his new web site. he was very proud and satisfied with The web site because he had completed his mission successfully. He was very happy.

At least, that what he thought until he decided to put his web site address on his business cards, told his regular and prospective clients about his new web site, and started using his web site as his business interface with his clients and customers.

A wave of complaints, discontent, and displeasure stormed into his ears and eyes via telephone calls and e-mails. His regular and prospective clients told him a lot of stories how they failed in using the web site for some business inquiries.

Some of them could not find information they wanted that caused the flood of calls to the entrepreneur's office inquiring the guidelines of using the web site. Some of them gave up using the web site for various reasons and did the inquiries in the previous "traditional" way.

Surely the above-mentioned case is oversimplified, but we can still learn some lessons from this case and highlight that:

1. The enterpreneur does not understand The targeted audience and their needs when he developed his web site. The common sense is not enought to give a clear and focused understanding of the intended audience and their needs.

2. The web site does not have some focused and clear goals, instead it is just a result of the enterpreneur's experiment that caused a misleading bad image and reputation for his business.

3. It is very tempting to rely on common sense, but the chance that the common sense is misleading remains. Common sense is unique for everyone. Something that makes sense for someone may not make sense for some others. This is what is called the gap of common sense.