Modern Products

I recently wrote something about an experience I had with my iPad when I just opened it up. I got plenty of angry responses telling me that since I didn’t read the manual I’m not allowed to complain (in other words, RTFM).

Such comments really piss me off. Not because I should not read manuals (I actually do in most cases), but because good products should not expect me to. I’ve written about it in the past, but here’s a short piece of text written 12 years ago by Joel Spolsky that sums it up in the best way: 

When you design user interfaces, it’s a good idea to keep two principles in mind:

1. Users don’t have the manual, and if they did, they wouldn’t read it.
2. In fact, users can’t read anything, and if they could, they wouldn’t want to.

Reading this text many years ago had a great effect on my life. I recommend you read it through: Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives.

And again I’ll stress the point - sometimes you must have a user manual. In most cases you should probably include a user manual for those looking for it. But you should aspire to build products that most people can just start using, without reading anything in advance.