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I'm always amazed at peoples' ability to observe users, and when user behaviour doesn't match up with the intended design, think "Hmm... the users have a pervasive misunderstanding. They need to be educated to understand the design."

Could it be that the model you describe doesn't fit the mental model of a typical human very well? Could the cause of this "pervasive misunderstanding" be bad design, rather than dumb users?

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Its not about education. Its about a mindset. Trying to understand the consequence of your action before you click. Reading what a box says before dismissing it.

Read your prompts before closing them isnt the same as "the users have a pervasive misunderstanding." Its usually panic. Its "im not a computer person so Im not even going to try reading this."

Have you ever had the conversation:

"This came up on my pc, what do I do"

"What does it say"

"Oh"

I am all for simple-to-understand user experiences, but at some point the user has to make some effort if they want to do anything even mildly complex.

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