Talk to the customer to understand the needs and issues, not to have them help design. Designers design, consumers consume - that doesn't mean the consumer can't tell you what is bad about their current experiences to feed the design fire. We hold a lot of user meetings and have to craft them to keep the users from trying to design solutions. That said, the insight is invaluable.
My opinion. On Mar 27, 2008, at 11:05 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I'm in a quandary. > > > > I like Dell Ideastorm [1], I like myStarbucksIdea [2] and I like the > approach listening to customers espouse what they like and don't > like about > stuff I, and my clients, do. > > > > But, I keep digging up these quotes with monotonous regularity: > > > > a) "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would > have > said, 'a faster horse" - Henry Ford > > b) "We don't ask consumers what they want. They don't know. > Instead we > apply our brain power to what they need, and will want, and make > sure we're > there, ready" - Akio Morita, founder of Sony > > c) "It sounds logical to ask customers what they want and then > give it > to them. But they rarely wind up getting what they really want that > way" - > Steve Jobs > > d) "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot > of > times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them" - > Steve > Jobs (again) > > > > So should I stop talking about focus groups? Is the old method of > ask and > listen not applicable - particularly when designing stuff that's > 'future > proof' and therefore impossible to assess with the users of the > future - or > should we seek out new methods? Some have suggested trawling user > communities, eavesdropping on online dialogue to perform a gap > analysis . > but is the next iPod or Flickr going to come out of a conversation > on a > Facebook wall. It just seems so vague. Of course, myStarbucksidea > (flawed as > it is from an Ix point of view) is an attempt to localise the > dialogue but > will the ultimate output of this just be a 'faster horse'? > > > > For us in the IxD arena when we're trying to create something unique > and > something innovative we press ahead with the development of > prototypes and > visuals that may reflect an interface and design that doesn't > reflect where > our users are today and, because they've not seen the insight we > might have > done, simply don't get why they'd need it. A case in point: a piece > of work > I've been involved with presented the idea that banking customers > could tag > transactions in their account - customers didn't get it: "why would > I do > that" . but we know from Mint [3], Wesabe [4] and others that people > do use > this feature. The problem being that the client has heard too many > users in > testing being dismissive about the idea and therefore increasingly > thinks > it's a waste of time. Granted, we could have fleshed out the > prototype with > 'why would I do this' type content and is this the failing here or > simply > that users don't always know best? > > > > Your learned opinions are sought. > > John. > > > > [1] http://www.dellideastorm.com/ > > [2] http://www.mystarbucksidea.com <http://www.mystarbucksidea.com/> > > > [3] http://www.mint.com <http://www.mint.com/> > > [4] http://www.wesabe.com <http://www.wesabe.com/> > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 ________________________________________________________________ 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
