Yes, people really don’t like to read.
When I started working as a PHP Developer 5 years ago I learned quite quickly was that people really didn’t read, they specially don’t like to read instructional text. To put it simply, if you need instructions you’re doing it wrong. And if you need a sentence instead of a to-the-point statement, then also, you’re doing it wrong.
As I gained more experience and moved up on the organization, I started repeating the same thing to designers and other developers more often. And still I was not believed. Since these are not facts of web design, but assumptions one makes about the visiter/member/surfer, I had no way of proving it.
I wish I had read this article before Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives, and shown it to my co-workers. But since I left the other job awhile ago, I figured I’ll pass it on to my few tech readers.
