Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated

Performance Versus Preference

The designs that help people perform optimally are often not the same as the designs that people find most desirable.

Designers and managers often confuse the business maxim “the customer is always right” with “the user is always is right.” This is a dangerous confusion, since what helps people perform well and what people like is often not the same thing. For example, the Dvorak keyboard is estimated to improve typing efficiency by more than 30 percent, but has failed to rise in popularity because people prefer the more familiar QWERTY keyboard. If you asked people if they would like to be able to type 30 percent faster with fewer errors, most would answer in the affirmative. Despite this, more than 50 years have ...