Every day in my business I spew acronyms like they’re primary colors and on more than one occasion I’ve completely stumped my wife with a word that is second nature to me, but a different language to her.

So, with this in mind, are we perhaps failing our users with our designs?

I’m currently in the process of a cart & checkout re-design at work. Needless to say there’s been a lot of conversation on the topic as well as testing (not as much as I’d like, but here we are). It’s going well, but it’s still not “there”. I’ve no doubt that it will do what we want, and better than our current implementation, but could it be even better?

Maybe some subtle changes to the wording might make a huge difference.

This came to me while talking to my wife (my always patient sounding board) and in the course of the conversation I used the word “checkout”. She paused, asked what I meant by it, and once I explained we were good to go.

But…

There was a pause there. She interrupted me to ask what I meant by that. When we design interfaces our users don’t have that luxury, so they just go somewhere else.

Cut to the chase…We are prominently using a button labeled “Continue Checkout” in this design. I wonder how many other users don’t get that the way we do?

I bet we’ll find some very interesting results if we change it to simply “Next”.

Will report.

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don’t have nearly enough insulation in them).

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that kitchen should be designed to accommodate, among other things, my 1952 Gibson refrigerator.

To insure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, make certain that you contact each of our children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year.

Make sure that you weigh all of these options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any choices that you make.

Please don’t bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: Get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet. However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers.

Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has. I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor’s house that he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as an interesting project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can’t happen very often.

Contact me as soon as possible with your complete ideas and plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I’ve given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can’t handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

It sounds simple, and sometimes it is, but most of the time it’s a deeply challenging, and therefore rewarding, thing to do.

My grandfather used to say “the first time you hit a golf ball correctly, you’ll be hooked on the game for life” (he was right, by the way). Working in User Experience is just like that. The first time you hear from a user “wow, that was so easy”, you’ll be hooked. It was like that for me.

It wasn’t anything glamorous, just an updated setup process for an application to manage a Microsoft Exchange-based product that involved some pretty deep concepts (from MX Records to MobileMail and BlackBerry options). I worked on it for a long time, and finally came to a flow that I thought worked well. When it was tested on users it received high marks, and one of the comments was “wow, that was easy”.

Sure, the design answered the requirements (and increased activations by over 60%, which looked good on my annual review), but what meant the most to me was that one user’s comment.

That was my golf ball, and I hit it correctly. I’m hooked on UX and Usability for life.