03要问“用户会怎么做？“（你不是用户）

We all tend to assume that other people think like us. But they don't. Psychologists call this the false consensus bias. When people think or act differently to us, we're quite likely to label them (subconsciously) as defective in some way.

我们都倾向于认为别人和我们用同样的方式进行思考。但事实并非如此。心理学家称之为错误的共识偏见。当人们与我们的想法或行为有所不同时，我们很可能(下意识地)把他们贴上某种缺陷标签。

This bias explains why programmers have such a hard time putting themselves in the users' position. Users don't think like programmers. For a start, they spend much less time using computers. They neither know nor care how a computer works. This means they can't draw on any of the battery of problem-solving techniques so familiar to programmers. They don't recognize the patterns and cues programmers use to work with, through, and around an interface.

这种偏见解释了为什么程序员很难把自己放在用户的位置上。用户并不会像程序员那样思考。首先，他们使用电脑的时间要少得多。他们既不知道也不关心电脑是如何工作的。这意味着他们不能利用程序员非常熟悉的一系列解决问题的技术。他们无法向程序员一样识别出用来定位、处理或绕过问题的的模式和提示。

The best way to find out how users think is to watch one. Ask a user to complete a task using a similar piece of software to what you're developing. Make sure the task is a real one: "Add up a column of numbers" is OK; "Calculate your expenses for the last month" is better. Avoid tasks that are too specific, such as "Can you select these spreadsheet cells and enter a SUM formula below?" --- there's a big clue in that question. Get the user to talk through his or her progress. Don't interrupt. Don't try to help. Keep asking yourself "Why is he doing that?" and "Why is she not doing that?"

了解用户想法的最好方式是观察。要求用户使用与您正在开发的软件相似的软件完成任务。确保任务是真实的：“加一列数字”还不错；但“计算你上个月的开支”会更好一些。避免过于具体的任务，例如“您能选择这些电子表格单元格并在下面输入 SUM 公式吗？" ---这个问题有一个很大的线索。让用户描述他或她处理问题的步骤。不要打断。不要试图帮忙。不断问自己”他为什么这么做？“还有”她为什么不这样做？“

The first thing you'll notice is that users do a core of things similarly. They try to complete tasks in the same order - and they make the same mistakes in the same places. You should design around that core behavior. This is different from design meetings, where people tend to be listened to for saying "What if the user wants to...?" This leads to elaborate features and confusion over what users want. Watching users eliminates this confusion.

你会注意到的第一件事是，用户做的核心事情十分类似。他们试图以同样的顺序完成任务。他们在同样的地方犯同样的错误。你应该围绕用户的核心行为进行设计。这与设计会议不同，在设计会议上，人们往往会因为说“如果用户想这么办...”而被倾听。这导致了复杂的特性和用户想要什么的困惑。观察用户消除了这种困惑。

You'll see users getting stuck. When you get stuck, you look around. When users get stuck, they narrow their focus. It becomes harder for them to see solutions elsewhere on the screen. It's one reason why help text is a poor solution to poor user interface design. If you must have instructions or help text, make sure to locate it right next to your problem areas. A user's narrow focus of attention is why tool tips are more useful than help menus.

你会观察到用户时不时陷入困境。当你陷入困境时，你会扩大观察范围。当用户陷入困境时，他们会聚焦到问题发生当前区域。他们变得难以在屏幕上的其他地方看到问题的解决方案。这就是为何帮助文本只会让让糟糕的用户界面设计变得更加糟糕。如果您必须有说明或帮助文本，请确保将其放在问题区域旁边。正因为用户会聚焦到问题发生区域，所以工具提示比帮助菜单更加有用。

Users tend to muddle through. They'll find a way that works and stick with it no matter how convoluted. It's better to provide one really obvious way of doing things than two or three shortcuts.

用户往往会想尽方法突破困难。不管操作多么诡异和复杂，他们都能找到一种可行的方法并坚持下去。所以提供一种非常明显的做事方式，会比提供两三条捷径要靠谱的多。

You'll also find that there's a gap between what users say they want and what they actually do. That's worrying as the normal way of gathering user requirements is to ask them. It's why the best way to capture requirements is to watch users. Spending an hour watching users is more informative than spending a day guessing what they want.

你还会发现，用户给你描述的和他们实际在做的有不小的差距。由于收集用户需求的正常方式是就是询问他们，这种情况令人担忧。这就是为什么获取需求的最佳方式是观察用户。花一个小时观察用户比花一天时间猜测他们想要什么更有用。

by Giles Colborne