11th Thing a UI Designer Should Know
The interface should be adaptable to individual user needs.
Not all users think or work the same way. What may seem efficient or logical, even to a great many users, may be nearly unusable to others, who thrive with different goals. Consider Microsoft Office and the ribbon interface, which for many is a pleasing combination, while for many others (I, especially) it's like an unfortunate combination of explosive diarrhea and locked pay toilets.
Similarly, what seems to be a clever idea based on one design goal may be a constant irritant for some (too many) users who would prefer to trade off a different design goal. For another odd Microsoft example, consider toolbar buttons that appear in grayscale until the pointing device hovers over a button, which then appears in color. While that makes it easy to locate the focus of the pointing device, it loses the easy differentiation of buttons that a continuous color presence would provide, making it difficult to identify the desired UI element.
Beyond this, for me, a user interface that cannot be customized is severely limited. I can always come up with a better layout and features FOR ME than what the UI designer (or far less clever management) provides.
