Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
Sorry I'm a bit late to this thread. Ignore if you want. I think people have forgotten where the idea of listen to your customers (or users) came from, though I think Dan Saffer's response in this thread came close to how I feel. The idea source, as I remember it, was the radical notion that (a) your customers/users know things you don't, and finding out those things can be valuable; and (b) the interaction between a company and a customer should more resemble a conversation or ongoing stream than one-off product sale(s). I strongly agree with these premises Under these basic assumptions, it seems trivially true that one ought to listen. One listens to gain knowledge one cannot get in other ways. One listens because a conversation where only one side speaks isn't really a conversation and the non-speaking side is likely to get bored or frustrated and walk away. Where this idea goes off the rails is when one narrows down the notion of listening to focus groups. Or when one interprets the idea I must listen to mean I must get design ideas from my customers. I strongly disagree with these consequents that some people seem to draw from the original premises. But just because we don't like the consequents doesn't mean the original premises are flawed. In the original post to this thread John Gibbard gave some quotes that indicate the notion of listening to customers has limits. It's not a cure-all. Granted. But we could just as easily say the same things about any IxD process or artifact (scenarios, personas, user tests, task hierarchies, etc). All of these have limitations and also have value. Just because listening to customers has its limits doesn't mean it has no value. Baby, bathwater, sploosh. Best, --Alan 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
On 28/03/2008, Kristof Versluys [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What people tell they do What people actually do = completely different Listen to your customer. Get him involved. But even better, see him use a product/website/... Give him simple tasks. Ask him to describe what he's doing. I say take it up a level. You're right what they do is the key here NOT what they want. My focus has been on finding out what they do not even mentioning the product or website. This sets the 'universe' that the product/site exists in. To me this is the basis of any final solution, even redesigns. The users are going to use it to do something - how does that fit with their world. It's very contextual and I find it scares many folks as they expect us to start by testing the website and I totally ignore 90% of the time when talking to users. So the 'faster horse' thing is spot on. I try never to ask the user 'what do you want on the website' but instead 'what would make what you do easier'. There's then a series of steps to get from that to actual interaction design which can be squeezed into suprisingly short amout of time and radically improve the quality of the end project (and make it much simpler). Pay attention to the underlying issues; if he/she wants a faster horse, you don't have to build or find a faster horse. Extraction: you now know they want to go faster Get the questioning level right, I've found, and you can get them to tell you that they just want to go faster. In short let the users set the scope and what functionality is important to them and what information they need and when - we can do the rest :) -- Stewart Dean 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
Did you run across the situation when after researching the users you find that people stick to a wrong or inefficient way of doing the target function, and you find yourself choosing between insisting on the better practices and thereby perhaps losing a big part of the conservative audience, or try to please them by indulging and optimizing what they are used to? Oleg. -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Don%27t-listen-to-your-customers.-tp16342555p16451198.html Sent from the ixda.org - discussion list mailing list archive at Nabble.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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
I am going to get slightly philosophical and maybe it will illustrate the topic better/differently. People have functions Products serve functions People rarely think about these functions, they just do them. Therefore asking people about these functions rarely gives you the right answer, because people don't think about them. But we ask people for other reasons: For example, you need to make sure that your definition of their environment corresponds with their definition of their environment, so that you are both on the same wavelength and your deductions are not based on assumed facts. So, whichever test you use, understand what you are learning from that test and the relevance. Now put all these famous quotes in context and you will understand that they all listen to their target market, they just do it different. When something like You have to listen to your customers becomes fashionable, people tend to use it at inappropriate times. There is a correct place and time for everything and there is more than one way of listening. Addition: The Evolution of Functions Products What are functions? Functions are things you do everyday: You go to work, you work on a PC, you write with a pen, etc. It is everything that you do. What are products? Products are everything that you use to complete those functions: A car to drive to work, a Dual Core PC to do work on, a Parker to write with, etc. In general, we do functions and we have to get them done. Any product that improves the time it takes to get things done is a plus and if it does it better, it is another plus. Now the problem with getting things done is that we suddenly have more time available, but that leads to us adding more functions and the cycle continues. Example: Compare your original PC with your current one. How fast was the original and how many things did you do with it? How fast is the new one and how much are you doing with it now? Yet, we still complain that our current PC's are slow when we want to get things done, when it is probably 20 times faster than our original PC. Why is that? 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
This article about Ketchup, of all things, is a good reminder that market forces and embedded tastes cannot be underestimated ... * http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
Yup! Question assumptions and be lucky enough to work in an environment/ culture where you are a) allowed to fail b) not look stupid for doing it and c) rewarded with the aim of coming up with something better. rgds, Daniel Szuc Principal Usability Consultant www.apogeehk.com T: +852 2581 2166 F: +852 2833 2961 Usability in Asia The Usability Kit - www.theusabilitykit.com On 28/03/2008, at 6:04 PM, Rob Tannen wrote: At the end of the day, customers are an essential source of data for informing a design, but they are one of many. The key to effective design research is triangulation - finding support and patterns across multiple data sources including user observations and interviews, competitive market research, and designer expertise. Multiple, independent data sources will support or cancel out ideas, resulting in a viable set of results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=27702 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
Depending on the situation, I do or don't listen to what people say. For really big innovations that have absolutely nothing to do with anything out there now, asking the average consumer about them isn't useful in most cases. One is better off researching trends, coming up with multiple scenarios of the future, forming hypotheses and then going into the field to substantiate or refute those based on what is happening today. Even that will not provide answers but simply point toward a more likely future scenario provided there are no great disruptions, new technologies out of left field, etc. For near term improvements on a product/service or innovations that are near-term and resemble something which already exists, I still don't listen to what people say but rather observe what they do and try to understand their base, emotional unmet needs. Here, archetype, semiotics, ethnography is very useful. For immediate improvements to existing products/services/interfaces, I listen to what lead or extreme users have to say and I watch them to uncover new opportunity. I look for outliers - people who do things differently from everyone else and either accomplish the same thing or figure out a better way. I also listen for what people don't say and observe any workarounds. If great detail is involved, I'll suck it up and do a time-motion study...;) So I really do think your objectives or those of your client should lead one's approach. But then, there are always exceptions to every rule! 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
At 6:05 PM + 3/27/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ... snip ... 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?... If you're designing something completely new you have the opportunity to approach it in an entirely new way (cf the iPhone), but if you are improving or extending an existing product you can't break completely out of the existing mold (cf the 2nd to 5th generations of the iPod). And each project will have it's own limits imposed by time, budget, the visions/imaginations of stakeholders, the political structure, etc. Given all that, I have learned that you can almost never take a user's words verbatim. Listen to them, gather all the raw data that seems reasonable, but then try to dig down to the root causes, the core motivations that leads people to say what they do. then try to solve the real problems rather than the stated problems. For two interesting and useful perspectives on how far what users think and say depart from what the fundamental reality truly is, you might read Freakonomics and The Culture Code. These don't directly apply to UX design, but from two very different viewpoints they make it clear that you shouldn't take what most people say at face value. FWIW, Bill -- == Bill Fernandez * User Interface Architect * Bill Fernandez Design (505) 346-3080 * bf_list1 AT billfernandez DOT com * http://billfernandez.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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
On Mar 27, 2008, at 9:05 PM, Marijke Rijsberman wrote: For instance, testing prototypes is not a good way to suss out what (small?) percentage of people is going to do something like write reviews, tag their expenses, or do some other power user type of thing which demands a lot more dedication than the average user would bring to it. That requires a different (and likely more quantitative) type of research. Completely disagree. Last year we did several rounds of usability testing for LA Times w/prototypes looking at tagging, reviews, and other social idioms. In fact, the usability testing highlighted something we never would have seen in quantitative research—that while people aren't sure what tags are, the interaction of what a tag does meets their expectation. If we had done a quantitative approach, we would have seen near 0% interaction and based on that would have scrapped tagging, ratings, and reviews from the new Calender Live site. However, with in-person testing, we were able to get feedback from users that showed: 1. Only power-users are likely to migrate to tagging, ratings, and reviews. 2. Power-users are not age-defined. 3. 3-5% of users will rate, tag, or review. 4. Non-power-users were willing and often interested to explore tagging, ratings, and reviews, but sometimes needed some type of prompting. Understanding what kind of prompt they needed helped us engage them in future rounds of testing. Gaining this understanding is only something we could have obtained by in-person discussions, not through a web-survey. 5. Through in-person studies were able to perform some collaborative design with the participants and determine the priority levels of the information on the screen. This lead to design concepts that enabled us to put tags clouds (something that less than 2% of our participants knew what it was) in the appropriate place on the screen so that they were out of the way of those who wouldn't use them, but reachable for those who would. 6. When encouraged to explore tags, every participant who did found them extremely useful and immediately saw the benefit. We didn't explain the benefit and ask them to try them, we simply asked what they expected to happen if they clicked on those things and then had them try it out and followed up with how does that compare to what you expected? Very vague, but it does the trick w/o leading. Numbers 1-3 could be accomplished w/a quantitative study, but 4-6 took a qualitative study to perform. And frankly, 4-6 were insights that were new, while 1-3 are things we could have learned by googling. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel President, Design Researcher Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AIM:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Blog: http://toddwarfel.com -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
The most common misconception about design research is that you are asking users what the design should be. You aren't (or shouldn't be). Instead, the best design research I've been involved in is about finding data on three things: 1. Unmet needs. Usually unspoken and unrealized. Yes, people would have asked for a faster horse, but what is the need there? To travel longer distances quicker. The automobile was the solution to that need. 2. Pain points. Where is what is being done now difficult? 3. Opportunities. Where is there a space for a product or service that would meet those unmet needs or fix the pain points? Then it is our job to design the solution. This is what we are paid to do. :) Now, obviously, if a research subject comes up with a good solution, by all means steal it! Dan 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
What people tell they do What people actually do = completely different Listen to your customer. Get him involved. But even better, see him use a product/website/... Give him simple tasks. Ask him to describe what he's doing. Pay attention to the underlying issues; if he/she wants a faster horse, you don't have to build or find a faster horse. Extraction: you now know they want to go faster Your customer won't bring the solution, but he can point out some key-issues. That is, if you're a good listener ; K. 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
Microsoft uses a lot of focus groups. Take that for what's it worth. From an ideation and concepting perspective I think they have minimal value and can in fact be disruptive, in that they can force you down a prescribed path far too soon. Far better to follow Andrei's advice or even better augment it by watching people. Even one person with a camera and notebook making quite observations can be a great augmentation to structured interviews. The canonical example of focus groups is New Coke. They focus grouped the heck out of that before they launched. Chris Bernard Microsoft User Experience Evangelist [EMAIL PROTECTED] 630.530.4208 Office 312.925.4095 Mobile Blog: www.designthinkingdigest.com Design: www.microsoft.com/design Tools: www.microsoft.com/expression Community: http://www.visitmix.com The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed. William Gibson -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Andrei Herasimchuk Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:17 PM To: IXDA list Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers. On Mar 27, 2008, at 11:05 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Your learned opinions are sought. Don't ask people what they want. Simply ask them what they *think* they want. Pause. Then ask them why. After that, you're on your own. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
There are tools for the appropriate places and times. Focus groups are attitudinal and small group dynamics being what they are can skew consensus. Perhaps not the best use for some things we do. Ethnography and other social science approaches towards observing the user in the environment may be more fruitful for yielding gap analyses in terms of need generation. Then too, does anyone remember the often-recounted study about yellow boomboxes vs black ones, the users said they would all buy yellow ones, but then when asked to pick up free ones on the way out, they all picked up black ones? I love that. Don't get me started on who says they wash their hands coming out of the bathroom vs those who actually do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=27702 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
Wasn't it mentioned here or somewhere else that the first use of Focus Groups was for the Edsel?? If that doesn't about say it all - There is the story about the 12 people (?) brought in to focus group on a new personal stereo (boombox they were called at the time), and people were asked what colours they would like - and a large majority responded very favorably to the canary yellow boombox. At the end - as they were walking out the door - they were offered boomboxes as thank you's for doing the focus group. Yellow was offered. Everyone took black. Users lie. Ouch! What did Will just say? They lie. Sometimes they don't even know it. In user testing - they could have completed a task 10 minutes ago - and they will lie about what they did - well - they will not remember correctly what they did -- which is why you observe what they do - not what they said they did. Let the flames begin - I am pulling out my umbrella now - just incase anyone throws veggies. On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 12:13 PM, Chris Bernard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Microsoft uses a lot of focus groups. Take that for what's it worth. From an ideation and concepting perspective I think they have minimal value and can in fact be disruptive, in that they can force you down a prescribed path far too soon. Far better to follow Andrei's advice or even better augment it by watching people. Even one person with a camera and notebook making quite observations can be a great augmentation to structured interviews. The canonical example of focus groups is New Coke. They focus grouped the heck out of that before they launched. Chris Bernard Microsoft User Experience Evangelist [EMAIL PROTECTED] 630.530.4208 Office 312.925.4095 Mobile 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
Hi John, Instead of using focus groups, I use personas to get a clear view on the user goals. Constructing personas isn't about asking what users want. It is about trying to figure out their daily goals (anything from being happy to finish my todo list by the end of the day). I believe that as a designer I should always try to design in a way that enables users to accomplish these goals. Personally I prefer the goal directed design approach from Cooper. Qualitative research helps us understand the domain, context, and constraints of a product in different, more useful ways than quantitative research does. It also helps us identify patterns of behavior among users and potential users of a product much more quickly and easily than would be possible with quantitative approaches.[1] The people from Cooper posted some articles on their journal[2], these might be helpful. I think The Persona Lifecycle[3] is a great first introduction with personas. Gr. Erik van de Wiel 1: Book: About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design -- Alan Cooper (quote: page 50) http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/0470084111/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1206699216sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/0470084111/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1206699216sr=8-1 2: http://www.cooper.com/insights/journal_of_design/articles/personas/ 3: Book: The Persona Lifecycle http://www.amazon.com/Persona-Lifecycle-Throughout-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0125662513/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1206699232sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Persona-Lifecycle-Throughout-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0125662513/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1206699232sr=1-1 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
There are tools for the appropriate places and times. Focus groups are attitudinal and small group dynamics being what they are can skew consensus. Perhaps not the best use for some things we do. Ethnography and other social science approaches towards observing the user in the environment may be more fruitful for yielding gap analyses in terms of need generation. Then too, does anyone remember the often-recounted study about yellow boomboxes vs black ones, the users said they would all buy yellow ones, but then when asked to pick up free ones on the way out, they all picked up black ones? I love that. Don't get me started on who says they wash their hands coming out of the bathroom vs those who actually do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=27702 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
The company I currently work for provides online services for restaurants. One of our greatest accomplishments for this company as a design team is a seating management program that is about to go into several test restaurants. When we began the research for this product, we went into all the restaurants here in the town of Durango to interview hosts and hostesses. We did not really introduce ourselves as designers looking to develop a better way to seat guests but more so as researchers for a start-up company. We began by asking them about the work they do and had them walk us through a typical workday. We then proceeded to examine their actual behavior. We documented the different types of mediums they used in taking reservations, handling walk-ins and dealings with restaurant staff. It was in observing their behaviors that allowed us to clearly see both the problems and solutions. Once we compiled this information, we were able to build solid personas, true-to-life scenarios, story boards, workflows and then wireframes that we then could take back to the host and hostesses for usability testing. From there, we did visual comp specs that we then tested again before turning over to engineering. Ultimately, it is the quality of the research and experience of the researcher that will determine the true value it can bring to the design process. We were fortunate to have an outstanding individual who truly understood how to properly perform research to give us such powerful results. I apologize if I seem condescending, but if you are not getting value out of your research, then you need to ask yourself if you are doing it right. We also have employees here who are not adept to doing research correctly and the results have been less than useless. Even with my experience doing this research, I do not consider myself an expert in this field. My only bit of advice (at this moment) is: Do not go straight into telling people what you are doing and then asking them what they think they would want you to do. Even by telling them what you are doing, you begin influencing their answers.Your interviewees will always want to impress you with their intelligence and try to say what they think you want to hear. So don't give them any clues. Research their behaviors, maybe even secretly (I know, easier said than done) They will give you more answers if they think they are not being tested under the microscope. Maybe save the hardcore interviewing as a means of usability testing with some low fidelity mock ups. We just made color copies and had people pretend they were computer screens. Have the right people do the interviewing. Many of us think we can do it right, but if others observed us, they may think differently. As for myself, I look forward to continually learning from all of you here - Thank you for your time! Stefan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=27702 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
I second Todd's observation. There is nothing better than being in your customer's environment to help you as a designer puts some context around what they are saying. I'll share an IDEO story that they like to show to clients to help them understand why contextual sessions with customers are necessary. IDEO was working with a client in the health and beauty industry. As a part of the project, the team interviewed extreme users - those people who said they never, ever used beauty products or services, as well as those for whom pampering was a regular habit. The clip that IDEO plays is of a forklift operator - a big burly guy who falls into the former category. During the session, one of the observers noted that there was a home foot spa next to the sofa where the interview was taking place. When asked about it, the guy admitted that it wasn't just for his fiancee, that he used it as well, explaining that the boots he had to wear for work every day did a number on his feet and the spa helped relieve his aches and pain. He simply didn't (or didn't want to) interpret that to be a 'beauty product' or his daily foot spa to be 'pampering'... On Mar 28, 2008, at 5:45 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: There is a difference between doing what your customers say and actually finding out/interpreting their needs based on a conversation with them and observing their behaviors. Nancy Broden [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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
[IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
All right. I'll bite. But rant first: Even though I understand exactly what people mean when they say don't listen to your customers or don't pay attention to what users say, pay attention to what they do, these things irk the hell out of me. Of course you should listen to your customers--as you should listen to your kids, and your pets, and your friends, and your enemies, and everyone and everything that has the ability to express itself. Duh! But listening to your customers is not the same thing as listening to your parents when you're 5 years old. You don't have to do what they say, just because they say so. So to begin with, it would make sense to ask people only for information you actually are going to want to listen to. (I don't ask my cat whether he wants his flea medicine; I do ask, in one way or another, whether he prefers the beef-goop or the salmon-goop that comes out of the can of cat food.) Okay, now that I've got that off my chest ... your post actually brings up a great question about what kind of research will get you what kind of results. For instance, testing prototypes is not a good way to suss out what (small?) percentage of people is going to do something like write reviews, tag their expenses, or do some other power user type of thing which demands a lot more dedication than the average user would bring to it. That requires a different (and likely more quantitative) type of research. To run a useful study on such prototypes, you'd want to make sure you have figured out what kinds of people are the most likely to do power-X and then recruit _them_. This might mean recruiting for people who study and analyze and dissect their quarterly credit card expense breakdowns. Or, frankly, the people who tag their expenses on Wesabe and Mint. If _they_ don't like the functionality you're building, then you should wonder whether you're doing the right thing. In short, absolutely listen to your customers, but only the right ones responding to the right questions. marijke John said 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? 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
First of all, I have never seen anything useful come out of a focus group. Marketing, design, whatever...useless. The only reason to do a focus group is that your management/client likes them and wants you to do one. But on to the actual topic: There's a difference of scale here. Great new ideas virtually never come out of listening to your users because the user focus is on making their own day-to-day life a little easier. That's why so much bad design (in the broadest sense) is perpetuated. Users are accustomed to it and they want incremental change...slight betterment, something that will make their work a bit simpler, something they recognize and have to think *less* about from day one. This is not how you get Visicalc, or cars, or refrigerators, or ipods or TiVOs. Each of these changes fundamentally the paradigm of the work to be done and the only way to get to those is by looking way down-level at what you're doing and how that figures in your life. You have to entirely redefine the problem at a very low level. It means not saying how do we add all those numbers fast and keep track of them but what do we need to do with the numbers, forget about getting the ice to market faster, take the ice out of the equation. Look past programming a VCR to tape your favorite show at a particular time and channel and make a machine do the work of tracking the show, taping whenever it's on and wherever, and taping everything that has the person you watch it for whenever *she* is on a talk show rerun at 3:45 AM, the computer world is going to the network and going wireless, why spend time, energy and money putting connection buses on the computer? This kind of thinking means that instead of figuring out how many cars would be using the freeway exits per minute (incidentally, they came up with 1) so that you can avoid accidents, you decide not to have the entry ramps and exit ramps cross, so that the first problem disappears. In many ways, Interaction Design can be said to be an ongoing decision regarding what problems to look at so that we solve the right problems. This is never going to be something you'll find out in a focus group, because even if a participant were to say Why solve that problem in the first place? Why not solve this underlying problem, instead? You've already decided what your product is, and it's very unlikely that you'll do more than dismiss that questioner as a crank. So the question is: what are you trying to do? Build a better mousetrap or do away with house mice? Katie At 6:05 PM + 3/27/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm in a quandary. 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]
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
On Mar 27, 2008, at 11:05 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Your learned opinions are sought. Don't ask people what they want. Simply ask them what they *think* they want. Pause. Then ask them why. After that, you're on your own. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.
I say skip it all, provide paths for everything, collect heatmaps, normalize UI ruthlessly. 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
