Why we renamed a feature mid-build.

Design · 5 min read

I wrote a whole blog post about not using industry jargon in your app. Then I used industry jargon in an app. The client caught it. Not through feedback. Through testing. A real person looked at the label and didn't know what it meant.

The term was "Webster Pack." If you work in disability services or aged care in Australia, you know exactly what that is. It's a pre-packaged medication container, organised by day and time, sealed by a pharmacist. It's the standard term. Every support worker uses it. Every care plan references it.

And it meant absolutely nothing to the person testing the prototype.

The trap of expert knowledge

The client who brought me this project knows his industry cold. He's been in disability services for years. He uses the term "Webster Pack" without thinking, the same way a mechanic says "alternator" or a builder says "nogging." It's just the word for the thing.

But the app isn't for support workers. It's for the people receiving care. People who take their medication but might not know the industry name for the container it comes in. People who call it "my pill box" or "that thing from the chemist." The industry term is correct. It's just not useful.

This is what the curse of knowledge looks like in product design. Once you know something, you can't imagine not knowing it. The client couldn't see the problem because the word was invisible to him. It's just what it's called. That's the trap. Your expertise makes you blind to the language barriers your users face.

How we caught it

We caught it because someone outside the industry tested the prototype. They tapped through the medication screen, saw "Webster Pack," paused, and clicked away. They didn't ask what it meant. They just moved on to something they understood. That hesitation and that abandonment told us everything.

The fix was simple. We changed it to "Medication Pack." Two words. Same function. But now anyone can understand it. You don't need to work in aged care to know what a medication pack is. The button says what it does, in language the person using it already speaks.

The whole change took five minutes in the design file. If we'd caught it after development, it would have been a code change, a label update, potentially a database migration if the term was stored anywhere. Five minutes in a prototype. Days in production.

The lesson for your app

If you're a subject matter expert building an app, your industry knowledge is your biggest asset. It's also your biggest blind spot. You know things your users don't. You use words your users don't. And the deeper your expertise, the harder it is to see which words those are.

The fix isn't to dumb down your app. It's to test it with someone who doesn't share your vocabulary. A family member. A friend. Someone who'll look at your carefully chosen label and say "I don't know what that means." That's not a failure. That's the most valuable feedback you'll get before launch.

And when it happens, don't defend the term. Change it. The user is always right about whether they understand something. They're never wrong about their own confusion.

Sources
Curse of Knowledge - Cognitive bias where experts can't imagine not knowing what they know.
Writing for Users with Lower Literacy (Nielsen Norman Group) - Plain language increases task completion rates.

Related blog posts:

Why your app shouldn't speak your industry's language →

Your first usability test should embarrass you →

How to name your app →