Watch Real People to Make Products Easier to Use

A product can have many features and still be hard to use. It can also be simple but fail to meet people's needs. The article says a useful product must solve both problems. Usability is how easily people can finish a task with a design. Utility means having the features that people actually need. A good product needs both qualities to help its users.

Ease of use also depends on the person and the situation. A large table may work well on a big computer screen. The same table can be difficult to read on a phone. People of different ages may also read the same website differently. Teams need to ask who will use the product and why. They also need to understand where and how people will use it.

One way to find problems is to watch real people. Give them tasks like the ones they normally need to do. Then see where they succeed and where they have trouble. Do not help them finish or guide them toward an answer. Start with a simple early design and make changes after testing. Test the new design again because more problems may appear.

AI brings new questions, but the goal of testing stays the same. The same AI request can produce different answers or different screens. Teams must check whether people can still complete their tasks easily. They also need to study how people control AI doing work. The article warns against replacing real test participants with AI versions. Success for an AI tool does not always mean success for people.