Business Analysis Notes

UX for analysts

Beginners, Experts, and Perpetual Intermediates

4 min read · Updated

In short Most people using any product are neither beginners nor experts. They are “perpetual intermediates”: competent enough to work, but not using it often enough to remember everything. Cooper and his co-authors argue that you should design for them first, with on-ramps for beginners and shortcuts for experts.

Based on: A. Cooper, R. Reimann, D. Cronin, About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design (2007), ch. 3.

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Key ideas#

The skill curve is a snapshot#

For any skill, users spread along a bell curve: a few beginners, a few experts, and most in the middle. The authors’ insight is that this curve is not a stable group of people but a snapshot.

  • Nobody stays a beginner for long. Being incompetent is uncomfortable, so people either progress quickly or give up. The book compares this to skiing: those who fall more than they ski soon quit, and the rest move on to normal slopes.
  • Few become experts, and expertise fades. Staying at the peak takes constant practice.
  • The middle is permanent. The book calls these users perpetual intermediates, in contrast to Larry Constantine’s “improving intermediates”, which treated the middle as a stage on the way to expertise.

Intermediates are not static as individuals. Their knowledge ebbs and flows: weeks of intensive work stretch it, and months away erase part of it. They don’t become beginners again, but they need reminders.

Design for the middle, provide for the ends#

A balanced interface is built around perpetual intermediates while keeping enough support for both ends of the curve. The book’s image is a ski resort. It earns its living from the mass of intermediate skiers, yet it still keeps a gentle slope for beginners and a steep run for experts, and keeps them out of each other’s way.

When to optimize for one end#

The authors name exceptions:

  • Optimize for experts when the tool is specialized and its users arrive with training and care most about efficiency: developer tools, or measuring and medical instruments.
  • Optimize for beginners when the product is used rarely or briefly, or by people with physical limitations: information kiosks, or devices for elderly patients.
  • Websites are a special case. Even a regular visitor who knows the web well may not come often enough to remember this site’s structure, so navigation must stay transparent for everyone.

Why products drift toward experts#

Developers must learn every use case, including the rarest, in order to code it. They become experts in their own product by necessity, and they tend to design from the implementation model rather than from the intermediate user’s point of view.

How to apply it#

  1. Record usage frequency in user analysis. For each persona or user class, note how often they use the system and how long the gaps are. This tells you who the perpetual intermediates are.
  2. Decide the design target for each interface. Default to intermediates. Document any exception (an expert tool, a rare-use product) and the reason.
  3. Split requirements into three layers: - the main path, for intermediates; - on-ramps for beginners (hints, guided first use) that can be switched off; - accelerators for experts (keyboard shortcuts, bulk actions) that stay off the main path.
  4. Choose the right usability targets. For daily-use systems, set targets for speed and errors. For rare-use systems, set targets for first-time success without help.
  5. Review with the right people. Developers and long-serving subject-matter experts are experts. Include users who come back after a break, or someone new to the process.

Review checklist#

  • The main path works for someone who last used the system a month ago.
  • Commands are visible and labeled, not available only through memorized shortcuts.
  • Beginner aids can be dismissed for good.
  • Expert shortcuts exist for frequent actions but are never required.
  • Rarely used functions remind users how they work.

Example#

At The Workshop, a fictional chain of bike-repair workshops, the analyst maps how often each group uses the system.

  • Front-desk staff use the staff app all day. They are intermediates, some moving toward expert, so the app gets keyboard shortcuts for check-in and customer search.
  • Workshop managers order parts once a week, with longer gaps around holidays. They are classic perpetual intermediates whose knowledge fades, so the ordering screen keeps full labels, remembers the last order and shows a short hint for rarely used steps such as returns.
  • Customers book two or three times a year. Each visit is close to a first visit, so the booking site is treated as a rare-use product and designed for beginners, with no feature that depends on remembering the last visit.

Pitfalls#

  • Designing for beginners everywhere → daily users drown in wizards and confirmations.
  • Designing for experts by default → reviewers who built the system approve screens nobody else can use.
  • Treating “intermediate” as a fixed level → plan for knowledge that fades between uses.

Sources and further reading#

  • A. Cooper, R. Reimann, D. Cronin. About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. Wiley, 2007, ch. 3.