I just had a user offer up this quote on a DMV website. She had just run across a message saying, “Just a moment while your experience is loading.” She was trying to pay a bill, and the site was being a little slow, hence the interesting variation on the standard “loading” message.
The same user was also on Vanguard, trying to make sense of some message that asked her to “migrate off the legacy platform.” “What’re they talking about?” she asked me. “How are you understanding it?” would be my typical response in a situation like this.
Jargon used to be the sole province of techies or industry insiders. You know, the error message that sounded like a leftover from the space program – “Invalid response: abort or retry?” Or perhaps the casual use of terms like “widget,” “RSS,” “cache,” “patch,” “API,” “firewall” or “SSL.” I think we’re all familiar with this sort of thing sneaking into the UI.
Now, ever heard of the terms “deposit account,” “external transfer” “HELOC” or “ACH”? Those are all nuggets I’ve run across in my career in banking. I’m sure each industry has a list of something similar.
Well, UX must be mature, because I’m starting to see jargon from there now as well. “Experience,” “interaction,” “journey,” “hamburger menu,” “onboarding,” “breadcrumbs,” “responsive” …
Yup, not only do users have to contend with the techies and the industry insiders. They now have to contend with us. The irony is palpable.
Now, you might be wondering what I’m doing testing DMV and Vanguard. Actually, I’m not.
That particular user? To paraphrase an old vaudeville joke, that was no user – that was my wife. Sounds like I’ve got her trained pretty well now to recognize poor design.
And here I always thought that quote came from Groucho
