On Jan 21, 2008, at 12:41 PM, Jim Leftwich wrote: > One test of the validity of any label to a particular approach is > whether or not groups of practitioners can reasonably be expected to > apply it to themselves and advocate it as part of their offering. > > I highly doubt any designers that work in individual, small expert > team, rapid style would hold out their approach to the field and > potential clients or companies as "genius design," or > "ego-centric."
This is a strawman argument. I find it hard to believe that many designers sell themselves (or self-identify) as a "user-centered designer" or an "activity-centered designer." It's hard enough to describe "interaction designer" without getting into the intricacies of our approaches. Clients don't care about what approach we're using. Hell, by this point, most of the people on the list probably don't care about it either. In some ways and because they are so fluid, these are artificial constructs. > You are not fully describing the complex set of approaches that > experienced non-UCD-practicing designers utilize and advocate for > many real-world situations. The section of your book on "genius > design" is a fraction of the size and depth of the other > methodologies you describe. The reason is because it is very difficult to do and is by its nature idiosyncratic and personal. And also mostly because it, unlike other approaches, does not have a core set of activities or philosophies that guide the process. There is nothing like the system diagram that systems designers turn to for guidance, or the observation of actions and tasks of the activity-centered designer, or the discovery of goals that the user-centered designer seeks to uncover. > > It would be intersting to give UCD and ERD practitioners the same > project, (say a medical device) with a small budget and extreme time > constraints and see the results in the finished product. > What would be the point of this? You seem to think that the approaches are in conflict, and one can be judged better than the other. That's fundamentalist thinking. We should be advocates for pluralism. Dan ________________________________________________________________ *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
