I saw this tweet by @louisrosenfeld (opens new window) today and it got me thinking.

[blackbirdpie id="16897095619"]

The first thing I thought was "nice list!" But as I started exploring the more I wanted to pass this along to everyone. Because of how our department is setup we get these questions on a daily basis. We have the freedom to craft every site separately and work like a mini agency within the university.

Our main objective is creating a positive user experience. As more of our students are interacting with the digital world this experience is, I dare say, more important than talking to a person. I say that because the care that goes into the web experience represents the institution as a whole, while the experience of talking to a single person may vary from time of day or week. Online user experience must be timeless and present an array of user groups with the same screens, we can't assume we know who a visitor is.

My Favorite Myths

• Myth #1: People read on the web (opens new window)
• Myth #3: People don't scroll (opens new window)
• Myth #6: Accessible sites are ugly (opens new window)
• Myth #7: Graphics will make a page element more visible (opens new window)
• Myth #12: More choices and features result in higher satisfaction (opens new window)
• Myth #17: The homepage is your most important page (opens new window)
• Myth #19: You don't need the content to design a website (opens new window)

Whether you work with our department or not these myths should always keep in the front of your mind. Far too often people charged with maintaining websites get tunnel vision for their department, school or college and need a moment to step back and re-evaluate if their efforts. You would be surprised how many users we talk to that simply hate features that were on the "must have" list.

View all the Myths at: http://uxmyths.com/ (opens new window)