Technology Changes. People Don’t.

Sure, my Mom is better at navigating the Web today than she was 5 years ago. But not much. So even though technology has made quantum leaps in the last few years (AJAX, XML, the DOM, etc.)…the basic needs of people and how they behave has remained the same. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard fellow designers say, "They’ll figure it out, people are used to surfing the Web now! They like to experiment!". Wrong. If you think your users will need to "figure it out" then you’ve designed it wrong and need to go back to the drawing board. Just because people have faster Internet connections, big fancy hi-resolution monitors, and wireless, laser-accurate pointing devices (mouses?) doesn’t mean that human nature has changed.