While humans are error prone, many of the unintended actions, delays, frustrations and confusions come from interfaces:
- Pushing instead of pulling a door
- Not being able to set the time on a clock
- Unintentionally voting for the wrong candidate on a ballot
- Turning on the wrong burner on a stove
- Not understanding an error message
A usability problem is anything in a product or website that leads a user to an undesirable outcome. It's relatively easy to spot when users have problems in an interface. It's a lot harder to know what, if anything, to do about them. Making usable interfaces starts with understanding what in an interface is causing problems and helping to fix them.
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