I was driving in San Francisco tonight to meet an old friend for dinner.  I've been to SF several times but this was my first time in the drivers seat.  I had my Google Maps directions and away I went.  After some difficulty finding parking we eventually made it to the restaurant.  After dinner and a monster trek back to the car I proceeded to get lost trying to drop my friend off at his hotel.  Now what does weird one way streets no left turns and wonky street signs have to do with software?  Glad you asked...  On the drive over the Bay Bridge I started thinking about different cities I've driven through and how some were so much easier to navigate than others.  San Francisco is unique but in this case unique is bad; bad because I as a user couldn't figure out how to "get around".  When we design software I often find myself building the first iteration from the mindset of someone who has spent years with computers.  Thankfully we have a great designer and user experience person who makes sure we (I) don't deploy any applications with (ugly, hard to use) "programmer" interfaces.

What I'm trying to say is, when you are building an application for a wide audience and you actually want them to use it, think like a novice.  What assumptions are you making in your visual design or phrasing that your years of experience allows you to navigate and "drive through".  Thank you designers of the road system in San Francisco, you made me realize I don't ever want to design something as hard to use or navigate as your city.