One of my biggest pet peeves as a designer—and honestly, as a human—is when a question, behavior, or mistake gets dismissed as “stupidity.”

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Users don't fail because they're stupid—they fail because interfaces aren't clear enough. Common dismissals like "user error" or "they should figure it out" ignore how fragile UI communication really is. Bright modals get closed because the web trained users to dismiss intrusive elements. Banners get ignored because they look like ads. Buttons go unseen due to screen size differences. Good design means making systems clearer, not expecting users to be smarter. This empathy should extend to teammates too—they weren't hired to think like designers, and dismissing their perspective repeats the same mistake we criticize when applied to users.

Maybe It’s Not the User Who is Stupid

Well, there’s definitely some stupid users out there. But I get what she’s saying.

Users are lazy and stupid. Developers are lazy and stupid.
This dance is eternal.

This is interesting because i was trained with the term “Dumbest assumable user” (DAU), which i now realize is such a stupid term.
I mean there are people who generally fail to interact with products in most cases, for example often very old, non technical people, but calling them dumb is plainly wrong and things should be designed in a way that it is very hard to interact in the wrong way.

OXO has a very good design philosophy that applies here. They don’t design their products for the average customer. They design them for the margins - pros and people who have trouble holding traditional utensils.
By designing for these edge cases, they inherently make their products easy to use and accessible for the normie.
Same goes for UI/UX. If you try to keep accessibility in mind and design for it, your app will become inherently easier to use for everyone.