scottberkun.com » #26 - The myth of discoverability 

#26 - The myth of discoverability By Scott Berkun , August 2003 Discoverability is often defined as the ability for a user of a design to locate something that they need, in order to complete a certain ... task. It’s common to hear programmers and designers utter the phrase “that won’t be discoverable”, while pointing to a specific command or link they believe users will fail to find. The trap, and the myth, of discoverability is that in any design, not everything can be discoverable. There are two flavors of the myth: the core myth, and its corollary. The myth of discoverability, in concise form : The belief that all good user interfaces make all things in the website or product utterly and extremely discoverable, and any design that makes an element (button, link, etc.) less than extremely discoverable, can’t possibly be very good, and should be thrown away, to the embarrassment of the designer. The corollary for large teams : In lieu of a truly good design, often people on the team will   [More...] [Less...]