Robert (or others), What other types of research fit into one or the other?
Contextual Inquiry Cognitive Walkthroughs Competitive Analysis Cultural Analysis And - when we think about the engagement ladder in social media, there is a lifecycle of activities that are not user (as in demographic), but certainly user (as in contributor/collector/spectator) that informs activities - so activities are not stable over time even for the same or different users in this case. On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 2:44 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The main distinctions as I see them ... > > 1. UCD = persona descriptions; ACD = activity analysis (focused on users, > objects, and the activities themselves) > 2. UCD = research focused on user goals, aimed at a niche audience; ACD = > focused on how people perform activities, abstracted to a wider audience > 3. UCD = involves talking to users in (almost?) every case; ACD = designer > can sometimes/often become a SME on the activity with very little or no > outside research > 4. UCD = users are unreliable, unstable, and often unpredictable; ACD = > activities are relatively stable, by comparison > > Activities can't occur without both a user and an object or situation. ACD > concerns itself with both those elements and how they go together to form a > cohesive activity. Because of the co-evolutionary nature of people and > technology, a user's goals/mindset/behavior/etc can (and likely will) > change > as a result of the technology, while the activity remains essentially the > same. > > Again, yes, there's a lot of overlap between ACD and UCD, but the > distinctions are important. > > Sadly, I have extremely little time to devote to this thread this month > (deadlines to meet!), but I'm very interested to see what others come up > with. > > -r- > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > -- ~ will "Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will Evans | User Experience Architect tel: +1.617.281.128 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] aim: semanticwill | gtalk: wkevans4 twitter: semanticwill | skype: semanticwill --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________ 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
