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Two key usability principles for getting people to behave weirdly
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One of the biggest issues that's come out of the Yoomoot beta has been getting people to word their replies as questions and answers and see the value of doing that. I've recently completed a few rounds of usability tests aimed at addressing that issue. Two key usability principles have emerged from the tests which I think are applicable to any web app:
1. Never show an interface that's radically different from what a user expected to see. Even if you explain the unexpectedness within the interface they won't take in the explanation.
2. Never expect anyone to read (or watch) anything unless they feel they absolutely have to in order to do what they want to do.
In yoomoot's case the current reply interface tries to get people to understand the rewording-as-Q&A thing via a very brief mini-tutorial that precedes the reply interface. What happens in practice is that users click the 'reply' button and then ignore or skim over the mini-tutorial. They have a particular idea of what they want to say and they expect to see a standard commenting interface. To them, the mini-tutorial is just some blah getting in their way. When, instead of seeing a standard commenting interface, they see a "new question" interface, they react by doing one of the following:
1. Never show an interface that's radically different from what a user expected to see. Even if you explain the unexpectedness within the interface they won't take in the explanation.
2. Never expect anyone to read (or watch) anything unless they feel they absolutely have to in order to do what they want to do.
In yoomoot's case the current reply interface tries to get people to understand the rewording-as-Q&A thing via a very brief mini-tutorial that precedes the reply interface. What happens in practice is that users click the 'reply' button and then ignore or skim over the mini-tutorial. They have a particular idea of what they want to say and they expect to see a standard commenting interface. To them, the mini-tutorial is just some blah getting in their way. When, instead of seeing a standard commenting interface, they see a "new question" interface, they react by doing one of the following:
- Running away in confusion.
- Ignoring the word "question" and writing a standard comment instead.
- Rewording their comment as a question and answer, but with the answer inside the question (the answer should be a separate post).