Humane Interface, The: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems

3-6. Myth of the Beginner-Expert Dichotomy

We're humans first, beginners or experts second.

—Clifford Nass, CBC “Quirks and Quarks” radio program, 23 January 1994

Psychologist Clifford Nass's point is similar to one that this book makes: Our interface designs must begin by accommodating universal human frailties and exploiting universal human strengths. We must make sure that every detail of an interface matches both our cognitive capabilities and the demands of the task (not that those two objectives exhaust our concerns). His comment also reflects the common assumption that users can be grouped into two classes: beginners and experts, perhaps with a few temporarily in transition. This dichotomy is invalid. As a user of a complex system, you ...