I second Todd's observation. There is nothing better than being in your customer's environment to help you as a designer puts some context around what they are saying.
I'll share an IDEO story that they like to show to clients to help them understand why contextual sessions with customers are necessary. IDEO was working with a client in the health and beauty industry. As a part of the project, the team interviewed "extreme users" - those people who said they never, ever used beauty products or services, as well as those for whom pampering was a regular habit. The clip that IDEO plays is of a forklift operator - a big burly guy who falls into the former category. During the session, one of the observers noted that there was a home foot spa next to the sofa where the interview was taking place. When asked about it, the guy admitted that it wasn't just for his fiancee, that he used it as well, explaining that the boots he had to wear for work every day did a number on his feet and the spa helped relieve his aches and pain. He simply didn't (or didn't want to) interpret that to be a 'beauty product' or his daily foot spa to be 'pampering'... On Mar 28, 2008, at 5:45 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: > There is a difference between doing what your customers say and > actually finding out/interpreting their needs based on a conversation > with them and observing their behaviors. -------------------------------- Nancy Broden [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
