Robert, I definitely think it brings something more to the table. I recently had an engagement with a company with a company that had a pretty good pulse on their customers, in fact the information I garnished from doing stakeholder interviews was invaluable and matched most of what I found when I did some customer interviews and observation. There was some difference, though and maybe this had to do with my line of questioning and approach. This was a web a redesign project, and during research I was really interested in the customers decision making process in purchasing the companies product. There were a few really good things that came out of the research that I don't think I would have thought of or found without the research. It's all about modeling context of the design situation and by doing this we're able to elicit insights that might not be otherwise available.
So, yes research can bring value and I don't think it's a band-aid in most of my engagements; the internal staff typically listen to their customers, but they don't have the knowledge to appropriately model context for an interactive project. Most companies I consult with don't have internal design teams. And I would also say that I don't always do research, due to the typical constraints of budget and in that case we are heavily relying on the company to model context. Kevin On Jan 1, 2008, at 4:30 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: > I've been reading Allison Fine's wonderful book, Momentum: Igniting > Social > Change in the Connected > Age<http://www.amazon.com/Momentum-Igniting-Social-Change-Connected/ > dp/0787984442/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199227694&sr=8-1> > . > > In one section, Fine talks about "the listening deficit" that > cripples most > organizations, positing that corporations and NPOs alike tend to > continually > push their own agendas and hope their customers will simply remain > quiet and > keep giving them money. > > When they later realize this isn't working, for whatever reason, > they hire > outsiders to figure out who their customers really are and what > they need. > Instead of listening to their customers, donors, volunteers, > employees, > fans, and so on in the first place, they pay *someone else* to do > something > they could and should have done themselves. > After pondering this rant for a moment, I thought about the User > Experience > profession. > > Does the user research aspect of your work exist only because > companies are > incapable of listening to and holding conversations with their own > customers > in the first place, or does your reseach provide value beyond what > internal > staff could have learned on their own had they been listening? > > Is user research simply a band-aid for the listening deficit, or > does it > bring something more powerful to the table? > > -r- > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 Kevin Silver Clearwired Web Services 10899 Montgomery, Suite C Albuquerque, NM 87109 office: 505.217.3505 toll-free: 866.430.2832 fax: 505.217.3506 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] w: www.clearwired.com ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ 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
