What Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts taught me about UX

This article pairs Jack Handey's famously surreal one-liners with lessons from the UX design process.

Each Deep Thought maps to a real principle (better than it has any right to)e: collaborate during discovery (even the Chihuahuas have ideas), build a shared vocabulary early, address assumptions before you build the wrong thing, and stay curious without leading your interview subjects.

The through-line is that good UX insight can come from unexpected places, and that the best practitioners distill complexity into memorable Post-it-sized truths. It's a light read with valueable points underneath.

Here are just the Deep Thoughts, no context:

I hope if dogs take over the world, and they choose a king, they don't just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some good ideas.
Sometimes I think the so-called experts actually are experts.
I think there probably should be a rule that if you’re talking about how many loaves of bread a bullet will go through, it’s understood that you mean lengthwise loaves. Otherwise, it makes no sense.
A lot of times when you first start out on a project you think, This is never going to be finished. But then it is, and you think, Wow, it wasn't even worth it.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.
I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I don’t pretend to even know what the questions are. Hey, where am I?
We’re all afraid of something. Take my little nephew, for instance. He’s afraid of skeletons. He thinks they live in closets and under beds, and at night they come out to get you when you’re asleep. And what am I afraid of? Now, I’m afraid of skeletons.
Instead of a welcome mat, what about just a plain mat and a little loudspeaker that says “welcome” over and over again?

This article was originally published on Lullabot.com.