Summary
About the Chapter
This chapter encourages designers, developers, and content creators to move beyond building for what they consider to be their average user. The argument made is that design frequently reflects the assumptions of the people who build it, rather than the diverse realities of the people who use it. We must make room for “real people”: people of varying technical abilities, physical abilities, backgrounds, and fluctuating emotional states.
The authors warn against common design pitfalls that don’t leave room for real people, including, but not limited to, the designers’ own bias. As humans, we rely on mental shortcuts based on our limited experiences – falling back on what is familiar, easy to recall, or readily visible. These shortcuts, while helpful for quick thinking, can lead to incorrect assumptions about who users are. The authors draw from psychological research to explain how “fast” thinking (intuitive, automatic) can generate stereotypes, whereas “slow,” thinking (deliberate, strategic) is necessary to design thoughtfully.
They propose a concrete exercise: start by imagining a “typical user” with all the typical traits you might default to: age, gender, location, job, lifestyle. Then actively imagine someone very different. Someone who breaks every assumption your brain made at first. This mental shift helps reveal hidden assumptions and expands the range of user types you consider. It primes the mind for slowing down, questioning instinctive judgments, and thinking more broadly about who might use your website.
This chapter fits within the broader argument of Design for Real Life, which stresses that people do not always interact with technology under ideal conditions.
The authors acknowledge inclusive design isn’t easy. Choosing a human-centered approach is often choosing the harder, longer approach. “Slow” thinking is exactly as it sounds – time-consuming. They also acknowledge designers will “screw up sometimes.” But they encourage an ongoing commitment, continuous reflection, learning, and iteration to create experiences that treat users as real, complex human beings rather than one average consumer.
About the Authors
Eric Meyer is a veteran web design consultant, CSS expert, author, and standards advocate who has worked on the web since the early 1990s. He helped promote web standards, wrote many early books and tutorials on web design, and remains active in mentoring and building tools for the web community.
Sara Wachter-Boettcher is a content strategist, writer, speaker, and consultant. She founded a consultancy to help organizations build better content and user experiences. She has authored other books and frequently writes and speaks about inclusive, ethical, and human-centered design.
Their complementary backgrounds shine in this chapter as they reflect on both practical design concerns and broader social responsibility.