Let me be honest even though I am well trained to be respectful during user research: There’s some days that I want to just say: “THAT’S SO STUPID.”

But then I catch myself and tell myself to stop being so critical.

I hear things like:

After they say that, I grit my teeth as they stare intently at me. Sure, I could design it that way. But after years of experience, I know that modes and those “simple” but in reality complex interactions don’t work. Yes, exactly…why can’t thinks work magically? Why can’t there just be one button? Because simply put, you will be frustrated with that one button, because it won’t allow you to do the thousands of other functions you want in one button? And why not something that adapts to the time of the day…because, you puny human, your actions are so unpredictable, so random, so irrational, so illogical that no designer and engineer can ever figure out what you really want to do.