• A comprehensive (and honest) list of UX cliches
  • Author: Fabricio Teixeira
  • Translation from: The Gold Project
  • This article is permalink: github.com/xitu/gold-m…
  • Translator: Fengziyin1234
  • Proofreader: GS666, Endone

Novice guide

The phrase “You are not a user of your product” is a reminder that you are not designing for a user like yourself. Often used to encourage more user research on a project.

“Whenever I ask customers what they want, they always say faster horses.” — Henry Ford This is a common answer to the previous sentence when you realize you don’t have the time or money to do enough user research.

“We’re testing the design, not your skills.” At the beginning of the testing phase, this phrase is often used to reassure users: “Rest assured, you’re not stupid, we’re still testing our design.”

“Designers should have a seat at the table.” This is a phrase you use to ask for an important meeting when you realize that your day-to-day work does not justify your strategic value.

“The number of options should be limited to seven, plus or minus no more than two.” “The number of options should be between five and nine.” Another way of saying that. That sounds like a relatively small range! Of course, every good designer knows that there should only be one or two choices.

“People don’t need a drill, they need a hole in the wall” etc. Do they really want a hole? Or maybe what they want is actually wireless Bluetooth, so they don’t need any holes.

“UX should be a way of thinking, not a step in the design process.” When you realize that a deadline is coming up and you can’t deliver it, you often use this phrase to convince your PM to give you an extension after the fact.

“Content is king” is a very strong argument. Convince everyone that you’re pushing the deadline because you haven’t received the content of the page you designed.

“Never underestimate a user’s stupidity.” Give them enough context and they’ll know what to do! How to be a good designer

“I’m worried about breaking accessibility standards.” The ultimate killer when you’re trying to diss another designer’s design but can’t find any valid arguments.

“User interface is like a joke; If I had to explain it, I’d say it wasn’t good enough. “The simple way to eliminate the boss’s need for user guidance. Play it safe: others may agree with you and blame you for the product’s failure.

“People don’t scroll up and down” is the best way to annoy a designer. (Translator: I don’t get it either, but in the old days, people always said above fold, and designers always got upset about it)

“People are used to scrolling up and down; Think about how you use Instagram, “a polite response to the previous sentence. “Instagram” can be replaced with any other feed-like product that you say the subject is addicted to.

“Fold doesn’t exist.” If you can’t convince them, leave them stranded.

“The UI vs. UX” @ # @ AjYsa selections % @ # % selections… & * (# % # % s selections. This is often followed by more cliched analogies such as ketchup bottles (see above) or unpaved walkways.

“All pages should be accessible in less than 3 clicks.” Just listen. Ignore it.

“Designers have to write code?” This is a great way to ask questions when you have nothing to say during the q&A session of a design meeting.

“If you think a good design is expensive, you should look at the price of a bad design,” he politely rejects dad’s counteroffer. It usually doesn’t work well.

“You can’t design an experience; Experience is too subjective to design “how to be a decent and witty colleague when you have nothing to say.

“Let the user decide.” Stop arguing and let the court user decide. Of course, it’s gonna be me in the end.

“People don’t visit the site through the front page anymore” was popular during the SEO era (2005 — 2008) and was often used to stop bosses from talking endlessly about the front page.

“Other than us, only drug dealers call their customers users” does not explain the meaning of this statement. UX was widely used in the early 2000s, when it was first introduced, and has gained popularity again in the era of “design addiction”.

The “escalator is broken, it’s a staircase” bug that was originally used to explain elegant demoting, and is now being used by programmers to stall product owners, doesn’t need fixing.

“Mobile users are always distracted.” Still, some people think that people only use mobile devices when they are shopping for food or reindeer.

“You don’t know what you don’t know.” No one does.

“Please let go of your meaningless self-esteem” is a great “enlightening” comment to share with colleagues before user testing or collaboration sessions. Framed and hung at the entrance to an office dedicated to “truth and cooperation”, it looks pretty good.

Hello, we need a powerpoint presentation to show our design flow – can you come up with something relatively easy to understand so we don’t look like a mess?

“Users never read” is used heavily to persuade users and bosses to halve the amount of text in their content. Of course, if you’ve read this far, you’re living proof that this statement is wrong

Do you have any jargon that isn’t listed here, please add it in the comments below

This is a satirical article, I used humor, satire and hyperbole to express. For more professional articles, see UX Designer’s Journey.

If you find any errors in the translation or other areas that need improvement, you are welcome to revise and PR the translation in the Gold Translation program, and you can also get corresponding bonus points. The permanent link to this article at the beginning of this article is the MarkDown link to this article on GitHub.

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