It is easy to forget there are people out there that aren’t on the Internet 18 hours of every day. Since I’m practically in a technology bubble, it is always mystifying to me when I talk to someone who can’t upload an image to Flickr or has trouble sending e-mails with a link inside. When you work on the Web though, these are the people you are working to help.

If you ever need a reminder of this read the Read Write Web article Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login. People who had Googled “Facebook Login” got to this page and thought it was Facebook and the comments are filled with angry and confused people. Now, who would have ever thought that by titling an article in an online magazine with the words “Facebook” and “Login” would drive so much traffic of users wanting to get to their Facebook page? And why after landing on this page did they not realize that it was an article and not the Facebook home page? These are our users.

Another reminder would be this “man in the street” interviews Google conducting asking people in Times Square if they knew what a browser is….

The challenge is designing for the Web that caters to the novices (as much as humanly possible) as well as our “expert” users. The real point is that we can never assume anything and people in the web design/technology world can never put ourselves in their shoes.