In learning about wire frame development for a website, I was taught that it’s critically important to consider the perspective of the customer vs. the perspective of the employee involved in designing the site. I listened to the story of a peer concerning her initial resistance to changing her company’s website. She surveyed some of the visitors to the site who claimed it was tough to navigate—and her initial reaction was that those visitors perusing the site just weren’t familiar enough with the product to understand the way the site was set up. Once she admitted to herself that the problem was, in fact, the way the site was designed, she was able to take corrective measures to substantially improve it.
This brings to mind not just the question of wire frame design, but of bias in any way that it relates to how employees and executives may infer what their potential clients are thinking and experiencing. Recently, I had a marketer tell me the story of an employee who wanted an email marketing piece designed not according to best practice, but based on the way he tended to navigated sites. He was overlooking his bias in this regard and she had to explain to him that his way is not necessarily the customer’s way.
While this seems obvious, it is often overlooked!