Hi Thomas: Tried hard to avoid definitions, but ... *sigh* what is your definition of UCD?
"There is no transcendence from these findings into the actual design and implementation." - Don't agree. There are plenty of instances where Usability Testing, as an example method, has provided clear findings and solid recommendations towards improving the design or in some cases completely realigning strategy or UI frameworks. "some good developers and designers to follow that through who care equally and who have a genuine interest in making interfaces and user experiences that are easy to use." - Agree but still think you need to involve users along the way. Does it have to be a pure UCD process, maybe not, but again this is where the right balance of focusing on user needs, knowing what research they are based on, following best practice, listening to the business, using design patterns (to name a few) and involving users at the right stages is is helpful. "What bothers me even more is that it seems as if UCD ignores any kind of accumulated knowledge and insist that every project should be using the UCD process." - Dont think it should and what do you base this on? "Yet the real experts where those who didn't use UCD IMHO, apple." - Do we know this about Apple? Do we know that Apple didnt apply some part of UCD in their process? I dont see this a whole or nothing approach with process - following UCD or not following UCD, its a mix of the right approaches that make all the difference - time, budget, culture, usability/UX/design maturity also play a role. "They know what they want in the old paradigme but that is hardly different than what any good interface desiger or UX knows through the accumulated knowledge they have or by conducting reasearch into mapping what kind of problems users are going to make." - Perhaps but we have also seen many cases where the user articulates what they want clearly, it confirms what we thought and it helps the business communicate the voice of the customer to help make their case to management. "I am all for doing user research and finding out what kind of problems users have, but to claim that they can suggest how to solve them is flat out wrong, how would they know?" - Some do and are becoming savvy enough to know. Part of our job is to know what suggestions to use and not use for our user base. This includes looking for patterns in data and finding insights that make a difference. Will conclude by saying that no one process solves all problems, but think its a flaw not to involve users at some point. Does it have to be the purist UCD approach, perhaps not ... For the rest, would make for a good face to face discussion at Interaction 10 or maybe a panel? *yikes!* Good stuff! rgds, Dan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46034 ________________________________________________________________ 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
