Failure to user test

One of my recurring gripes is failure to user test. It makes life unnecessarily bad because it is entirely avoidable.

Prenons, par exemple, la ville de Gatineau, qui tient une élection partielle le 9 juin 2024. Selon le dépliant que j’ai reçu:

“Entre le 11 et le 23 mai 2024, chaque personne inscrite recevra un avis d’inscription par la poste. … [S]i vous ne recevez pas l’avis d’inscription … il faudra vous présenter à la commission de révision afin de vous inscrire.”

Les dates de révision de la liste électorale? Les 21 et 22 mai, alors si votre avis d’inscription n’arrive pas le 23, il faut simplement construire une machine à remonter le temps.

Le dépliant aurait pu indiquer que les citoyen.nes puissent verifier leur état d’inscription sur le site web avant le 23 mai, quand l’information pourrait être utile. Mais non. Ça, j’ai dû le découvrir moi-même, tardivement.

I was also annoyed last week by the “event guide” for Doors Open Ottawa, which I absolutely adored prior to the pandemic. The guide used to be a tabloid-size brochure distributed to coffee shops, with photos and information about each building that could be visited, including accessibility info and a map so visitors could see what buildings were near to each other in order to maximize efficiency / indulge curiosity. The guide was fun and useful to peruse in advance and be guided by the days of.

The event guide this year is a total of four pages, two of which simply list the name of each building, a partial address, and the hours of viewing. No blurbs. No photos. No info about toilets or parking. Maybe it’s clear from the name what the building is. Maybe it’s clear from the address what part of the city or environs the building is located in. But, or, maybe not. There’s plenty of information on the website if you open enough tabs and spend enough time clicking, I just don’t understand who organizers think this “event guide” will be useful for.

Except the mayor, of course, who has claimed a full quarter of the guide for his messaging *and* saved on layout and printing costs.

If you want people to participate, you have to think about their needs. If you’re not guided by users’ needs, what are you doing?