We all have human frailties - there's no such thing as a 'dumb mistake'

And I'm not making this up, after all - 23,000 people did something a lot like this.

Unfortunately, the design team (and others connected with the project) can't put themselves in the users' shoes. It's not possible to take away your pre-existing knowledge and see things the way a newcomer would.

How do you avoid the dumb-mistake effect?

Designing in a user-friendly way requires a commitment to working out what tasks users are trying to do while they're using the device or system.

To find out what these are, you need to understand the context of the person using it and what they're trying to achieve.

You also need to know not just the immediate task but also the wider task it's part of (eg, not just "choose from 11 boxes", but instead, "vote correctly for a particular candidate"). This lets you understand all the different requirements that users might not even be able to articulate. Now you can design and test for whether users can achieve that wider task.

You also need to consider the context that they'll be using the system in, for example:

• a voting booth (where a medium-height person might not be looking directly down on the page, but at a slight angle, changing the apparent position of the holes);
• or a web site, where your customer service people can't point and say - "the rates are here, ma'am".

What does a good design do?

In short, a good design:

• lets people using the system easily achieve the task they're trying to perform (eg dispatch a police unit, vote, apply for a home loan, etc)
• achieves what the system's owners want it to (eg respond quickly to emergencies, run an election, make money, etc)
• works how the user thinks it should work (not necessarily the most technically perfect, but perfect for the user)
• lets people focus on doing whatever they're doing, without needing to think about the technology or tool itself
• is easy to learn and remember
• is quick to use
• makes it hard for people to make "dumb mistakes".

How do you get "newcomer" input?

It's simple: ask them. The best way to get a good design is to involve "newcomer" users in the design process.

A lot of design teams try to do this but in ways that aren't effective. They:

• develop user requirements documents: these are a good starting point, but they usually don't consider the wider context. Often they are developed by people who think they know what users will need, without considering hard data about user's tasks and context of use. ("They're our customers, I know what they want")
• invite users onto the project teams: these users quickly get caught up in the project team's perspective and lose their "newcomer" point of view
• run focus groups and surveys: people don't always act the way they say they do. Sometimes they'll say what they think you want to hear, to please you and avoid giving offence. Other times they don't notice what's happening or they don't remember all the steps they took.