The average user 5 Sep 2007

Author Nick Hornby interviews David Simon - creator of The Wire - in the August 2007 issue of The Believer. Here's the best bit:

"My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: f**k the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. F**k him. F**k him to hell."

We agree with Simon's philosophy. Don't design for some mythical "average user" (or reader, or viewer). Do your homework. Find out exactly who your users are and then design for them, specifically.

[via Kottke]