I'll let the academics duke it out over the difference between ACD and UCD. Personally, I find the definitions and distinctions made at the broad/abstract level fairly useless.
In practice, users and activities cannot be separated, or for that matter, prioritized, one over the other. They are two sides of the same coin. Just as you can't have heads without tails, you cannot have an activity without and actor (user). And while you can theoritecally have a user without an activity, they wouldn't be doing anything -- thus, no "interaction" could occur, thus such a user is not relevant to an Interaction Designer. So, call it what you want, but good design requires careful attention to both users and activities, and it requires them in conjunction. Cooper does place a lot of emphasis on Personas, but those personas' activites are described via scenarios almost as early in the process. Scenarios are "activity" based. Additionally, the personas are generated based on behavioral patterns (along with goals). Again, behavioral patterns are an ativity-based phenominon. Mental models are activity-based, but they are based on the activities of a specific user or user group. Basing a mental model on an unknown or undefined user is not useful. So again, from an academic standpoint, there may be different artifacts defined, but in practice, I have found the tools provided by both to be quite compatible. As for language, I prefer UCD because it serves as a reminder to always look back to the user. I find in the real world, little or no reminder is needed to focus on activities (and even less so on tasks). That seems to be the natural direction that development teams and business stakeholders focus. It is the user's goals, motivations, expectations, etc. that is so easily forgotten as projects progress. The value of the user-centered objects is keeping those user attributes in the forefront through-out the process and not getting caught solely in the minutia of the tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33980 ________________________________________________________________ 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
