On Sep 16, 2009, at 8:12 PM, Gilberto Medrano wrote:
@Jared: you mentioned "value" and "arrogance", and yet I don't find
your last 2 entries as adding much value or being less arrogant.
How much Thomas charges for his work shouldn't be a criteria to
weigh the value of his ideas, nor is it your business or mine.
What was your contribution in those two entries?
Hi Gilberto,
It's a good question. I guess my attempts at humor didn't work so
well. I was hoping to point out that statements like
"the reason why UCD have so much weight today is because there are a
lot of academics who don't know how to actually design (i.e. making
a decision) so they need to take it into a process where they use
user input to make decisions with. (yes it's an overgeneralization
since there are obvious great academic UX'ers out there, but the
rule of thumb is, if they don't know how to sit down and actually co-
produce themselves they are not worth whatever money you spend on
them."
in my opinion, are blatant, uninformed statements that show the
inexperience of the author while simultaneously offending many of us
who work hard to contribute to making better designs. I don't know
whose "rule of thumb" the author was speaking of, but I found it
pretty insulting. Since he talked about my value (not being worth
whatever money you spend on me), I was curious as to what he charged
to find out whether he was worth it.
If someone doesn't want to use a technique or method, so be it. I have
no problem with that. You just say, "I tried X and it didn't work for
me." But to then declare that nobody should do it is just plain
ignorance, in my view.
However, to claim that an entire group of hard working individuals
within our community "are not worth whatever money you spend on them"
is unfair, irresponsible, and disrespectful. Before one makes gross
generalizations like this in a public forum, they'd better find out
who their audience are, don't you think?
It's been a fair, constructive discussion so far.
No, it really hasn't. It's been one person stating his opinions as if
they were fact. He's ignored much of the actual work and research
that's been done in the past 20 years that conclusively demonstrates
the benefits and contribution of usability testing. And he makes
recommendations to the community at large based on this personal
viewpoint. To me, that's arrogance.
You're probably right. Maybe I should've avoided the attempt at a
humorous, soft-handed touch and just informed the author that he was
being an asshole by making these statements. Do you think that would
have worked better?
Jared
________________________________________________________________
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
