The Fall 2003 PDMA Newsletter posed the following problem...
Users typically expect products to work in a way they are familiar with from other products and experiences. When you try to fill in the missing letters in this string:
_ O T T F F S S E_ _ _ _
is your thinking influenced by past experiences?
In this case the thinking would not have helped you. The answer is Z O T T F F S S E NTET
which are the first letters of the words zero, one, two, three, four,…….etc.
Most people don’t get this right because it requires a completely different mindset from what they expect. The point to be made is that a product will not be successfully operated if the user interface does not conform to the expectations of the users.
