Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
That's huge. Isn't that one of the core concepts of interaction design: recognizing the difference between what people think they want versus what they actually do need? *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
It was probably a mix of both. The team at that point was myself and two other peers. We had about 6 months to redesign a site that had grown over the years to around 10,000 pages of horridly outdated content. It was a mess to say the least. While doing the redesign, we had to maintain normal operations for that site, manage other projects - internal business apps and marketing projects, and handle the communications plan training for the new site. The training involved 50-70 content contributors. So, one part was simply a resource issue. 3 guys couldn't handle all that and do the redesign all at the same time. The second factor, and I really think this was a huge part of it, was we simply did not have the credibility built across the organization to change the culture this drastically. Obviously, our champion had faith and trusted us, but not all of the stakeholders did. The two consulting firms were so well pedigreed that credibility was no longer an issue, and a lot of the internal politics at play went away quickly. There was simply no arguing with these guys! :-) Also, my team made it part of the selection process that we be highly involved with the research - we went and did fieldwork with the research firm and were equally involved with the design firm as well. During this time we constantly communicated back to internal stakeholders and established ourselves as equals with the consultants that they already highly trusted. By the time the project was finished, our credibility had gone way up. It went up even further after the site was live for a few months and the customer feedback and conversion numbers, as well as employee feedback started coming in. It set us up perfectly to be the ambassadors of change that you mention, and we were there to stay and apply the same process to other projects. Jeff On Jan 9, 2008 1:14 AM, Pankaj Chawla [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 1/9/08, Jeff White [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: They never seemed to really believe us, but as soon as we found a champion to support us and give us actual money to redesign their website, we brought in two outside consulting firms - one that specialized in research and another that specialized in design. Was the success because you finally found a champion who had the budget and power to drive the organization towards UCD or was it the external consultants? I would tend to believe that with such a champion even you and your team internally would have made the difference. Most such culture changing success stories have a seed in a champion at the highest level. Once there is a champion it just is a matter of time and finding a team either internally or externally who can implement the vision. In you case it happened to be an external team but I have seen so many cases where it happened with internal teams also. The added advantage with internal teams is they are there to stay and will become the change ambassadors for times to come. Thanks Pankaj *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
We recently did a project in the health care field. The overall goal was to improve the usability of a data collection app that was supposed to accurately record every step of a detailed, half-hour long medical procedure. The problem was that for some reason, there was a unusually high rate of error in the data being entered into the app by the care giver. Now, these same users had been complaining to customer support and account teams -- your normal user listening channels -- about many aspects of the interface. But fixing those never seemed to fix the inaccuracy problem. Wasn't until we conducted ethnographic research that we discovered that the users were hiding a very important issue. They actually weren't entering data at the time it was collected -- they were waiting for a couple hours, then entering data from (a sometimes faulty) memory. They did this for a variety of reasons relating to the interaction design of the application, and fixing those issues did end up solving the problem. But because the users were ashamed to tell us how they were actually interacting with the app in the field (I think it was a violation of FDA rules, to some degree, and they felt bad about taking shortcuts), our client's user listening channels weren't able to provide the critical insight needed to fix the problem. I suspect that as long as people are subject to cognitive bias, user listening alone won't be able to diagnose all usability problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24074 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
On 7 Jan 2008, at 17:49, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: [snip] Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set up to build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I think. [snip] I think it's worse than that in many situations. Developers get actively punished when they go listen to folk and go off track, or point out issues that may effect the end-user experience. It's viewed as making more work rather than making things better. Personally I think this is the cause of the evil developer-hates-the- user stereotype in almost all cases. Not a lot due to the way that developers-are. A lot to do with the environment the developers work in. One of the many reasons I like more agile development environments that emphasise communication across all the normal silos. Cheers, Adrian *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
On Jan 8, 2008, at 6:58 AM, Adrian Howard wrote: On 7 Jan 2008, at 17:49, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: [snip] Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set up to build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I think. [snip] I think it's worse than that in many situations. Developers get actively punished when they go listen to folk and go off track, or point out issues that may effect the end-user experience. It's viewed as making more work rather than making things better. Personally I think this is the cause of the evil developer-hates-the- user stereotype in almost all cases. Not a lot due to the way that developers-are. A lot to do with the environment the developers work in. One of the many reasons I like more agile development environments that emphasise communication across all the normal silos. I've said it before and I'll say it again: In our research, it's all about the measures and rewards. What gets measured, gets done. What gets rewarded, gets done well. We regularly come across teams where the culture (and it *is* a cultural issue) rewards great design above all else. In those cultures, you regularly see a focus on team problem solving and great organization-wide communication. We also come across teams where the culture rewards some other factor, such as time-to-market or reduced costs. In those cases, those factors will trump intra-organization communication of design- related issues, except when those issues will drive the reward factor. Want something to happen: build a culture that rewards it. Agile, by itself, isn't more likely to reward good design. Like any methodology suite, it can be bent to fit the existing culture's reward policies. As many teams are now discovering, in the wrong cultures, Agile is just as toxic and waterfall. Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
On Jan 8, 2008 4:13 AM, Jared M. Spool [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In our research, it's all about the measures and rewards. What gets measured, gets done. What gets rewarded, gets done well. Jared, thanks for sharing this. It knit a few tangled threads together for me. Up on on my whiteboard now as the day's quote. All the best, Michael Micheletti *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
Adrian I agree with you preference of working with an agile teams. They are MUCH more open to my input and requirements, and not only are they more open to listening, but more open to doing since they aren't necessarily time boxed. Unfortunately I work in a company where agile and waterfall approaches get mixed on the same projects and this as one can imagine makes things frustrating. I do agree with Jared that if rewarded for quality the quality will increase. In my experience with agile teams this has been the case. We have demos where my group comments on the quality of the product and the developers want to hear good things about the UI and how closely it matches the requirements, because they get a nod towards being proactive. Just some thoughts. Thanks! Lis http://www.elisabethhubert.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24074 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
I think that it is also important to note that users cannot always clearly express what their needs are. There has to be a level of interpretation from what the users says and what they mean. I can also say that simply implementing what users ask for can lead you down a feature-driven design path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24074 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
I think that it is also important to note that users cannot always clearly express what their needs are. There has to be a level of interpretation from what the users says and what they mean. I can also say that simply implementing what users ask for can lead you down a feature-driven design path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24074 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
On Jan 8, 2008, at 2:47 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: Well, obviously. :) I'm not suggesting that companies should listen better and simply do what users tell them, only that companies could listen better and perhaps, with a little sound judgment and analysis, avoid the need to hire outsiders to figure out their audiences for them. I tell our clients that hiring someone to do their user research for them is like hiring someone to take their vacation for them. It gets the job done, but something gets lost in the translation. Along the same lines, hiring someone to do their design for them probably has similar results. :) Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
Just want to point out that working with outside consultants can be a great way to strategically institutionalize the importance of getting to know the audience in the first place and introducing new design techniques into a corporate culture. At a previous position, a team I was part of spent literally years trying to change the culture to be more human centered in its' approach to building websites and apps. They never seemed to really believe us, but as soon as we found a champion to support us and give us actual money to redesign their website, we brought in two outside consulting firms - one that specialized in research and another that specialized in design. The project was a huge success and the company has since changed their ways. Frankly that entire process of evangelizing establishing UCD into the culture was one of the most challenging and rewarding things I've ever done in my career. It simply could not have happened without the use of outside consultants. Jeff On Jan 8, 2008 11:22 PM, Jared M. Spool [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jan 8, 2008, at 2:47 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: Well, obviously. :) I'm not suggesting that companies should listen better and simply do what users tell them, only that companies could listen better and perhaps, with a little sound judgment and analysis, avoid the need to hire outsiders to figure out their audiences for them. I tell our clients that hiring someone to do their user research for them is like hiring someone to take their vacation for them. It gets the job done, but something gets lost in the translation. Along the same lines, hiring someone to do their design for them probably has similar results. :) Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
On Jan 7, 2008, at 12:49 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set up to build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I think. In our research, a lot of it plays into the organizational structure. Often the management tree of the organization where engineering (information sink) joins up with customer support (information source) is at a senior executive level, sometimes even the CEO. It's not the job of those executives to communicate what the two groups are doing. Why should engineering invest more money to produce a better product if only support sees the cost reduction benefit? We've found the best organizations put fiscal rewards and bonuses into the support/engineering communication path. For example, for many years, select teams at (believe it or not) Microsoft had a bonus for the developers/engineers who kept support minimized for their products. In essence, money saved from reduced support costs was put into bonuses for the design development team. If you want to fix the problem, follow the money. Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
Jared wrote: In our research, a lot of it plays into the organizational structure. If you want to fix the problem, follow the money. I couldn't agree more. Most of the companies my company has worked for have a built in conflict between the engineers/developers and the designers and business leads. Typically the business leads are insisting on bringing us in to do a thorough user centered design -- but the budget for the development of the application comes out of IT. Plus the IT group is rewarded for speed and economical reuse of code -- both of which tend to fight against new design. Joseph Selbie Founder, CEO Tristream Web Application Design http://www.tristream.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
I beg to differ. Engineering departments depend on the customer facing departments (marketing, product engineering etc) for the customer perspective but its the customer facing groups that generally cut corners and instead of going out and doing a full user research they mostly give back their own perceptions partially validated by limited customer interaction. Of course engineering departments add their own perspective to the already ill baked data and so what comes out finally is miles away from what customer would have asked for if somebody had cared enough to ask in detail. Cheers Pankaj On 1/7/08, Robert Hoekman, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I can say that often parts of most company are listening - namely those that deal directly with customers, employees as you mention.. I'd agree with this, but I also see that often, the parts of a company that are listening have no direct line of communication to the ones that need the info. For example, a call center staff will have tons of useful insights, but there's no link between the call center and the design team. Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set up to build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I think. -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
That's a good point Pankaj. However, if marketing was conducting poor user research (imagine that!) that's just yet another reason why experienced practitioners of UCD could provide value to the organization. Jeff On Jan 7, 2008 1:12 PM, Pankaj Chawla [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I beg to differ. Engineering departments depend on the customer facing departments (marketing, product engineering etc) for the customer perspective but its the customer facing groups that generally cut corners and instead of going out and doing a full user research they mostly give back their own perceptions partially validated by limited customer interaction. Of course engineering departments add their own perspective to the already ill baked data and so what comes out finally is miles away from what customer would have asked for if somebody had cared enough to ask in detail. Cheers Pankaj On 1/7/08, Robert Hoekman, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I can say that often parts of most company are listening - namely those that deal directly with customers, employees as you mention.. I'd agree with this, but I also see that often, the parts of a company that are listening have no direct line of communication to the ones that need the info. For example, a call center staff will have tons of useful insights, but there's no link between the call center and the design team. Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set up to build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I think. -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
Hi Robert: When they later realize this isn't working, for whatever reason, they hire outsiders to figure out who their customers really are and what they need. Instead of listening to their customers, donors, volunteers, employees, fans, and so on in the first place, they pay *someone else* to do something they could and should have done themselves. Suggest some reasons why companies are getting outside help: 1. They are losing touch with their customers and want to get another fresh perspective (what are our customers saying today? Does it match with what we thought last year, a few years back? etc) 2. Don't have the resources to run the user research themselves 3. Don't have the understanding of the methods on ways to listen more effectively to their customers (beyond Focus Groups) - so feed them with some ideas on how we can help 4. Have an opinion (having listened to their customers) but may be too close to it, so want to validate with an external piece of user research 5. Believe in it (listening to customers), but need help to sell it internally to mgt to have more opportunities ahead to listen more to their customers (both with the help of outsiders and empowering them to do it internally) 6. Don't want to listen to their customers at all (or only hear what they want to will push personal internal agendas). So Yup - ...continually push their own agendas and hope their customers will simply remain quiet and keep giving them money. 7. Have enough money to burn to release products that do not reflect the needs of the customer and this is seen as ok in that company or product group (eek!) 8. The business knows their customers so well (they are not able to be impartial)(also see point 4) Others? ... something they could and should have done themselves. - Yup. Advocate of passing the knowledge to clients so they can do this themselves; so we can help them, if possible, with other pieces to enable us to - ... bring something more powerful to the table both big and small :) Perhaps see something they are not able to see as they are too close to their own business. 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 02/01/2008, at 7:30 AM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: I've been reading Allison Fine's wonderful book, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Agehttp://www.amazon.com/Momentum-Igniting-Social-Change-Connected/ dp/0787984442/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1199227694sr=8-1 . In one section, Fine talks about the listening deficit that cripples most organizations, positing that corporations and NPOs alike tend to continually push their own agendas and hope their customers will simply remain quiet and keep giving them money. When they later realize this isn't working, for whatever reason, they hire outsiders to figure out who their customers really are and what they need. Instead of listening to their customers, donors, volunteers, employees, fans, and so on in the first place, they pay *someone else* to do something they could and should have done themselves. After pondering this rant for a moment, I thought about the User Experience profession. Does the user research aspect of your work exist only because companies are incapable of listening to and holding conversations with their own customers in the first place, or does your reseach provide value beyond what internal staff could have learned on their own had they been listening? Is user research simply a band-aid for the listening deficit, or does it bring something more powerful to the table? -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
Robert, I definitely think it brings something more to the table. I recently had an engagement with a company with a company that had a pretty good pulse on their customers, in fact the information I garnished from doing stakeholder interviews was invaluable and matched most of what I found when I did some customer interviews and observation. There was some difference, though and maybe this had to do with my line of questioning and approach. This was a web a redesign project, and during research I was really interested in the customers decision making process in purchasing the companies product. There were a few really good things that came out of the research that I don't think I would have thought of or found without the research. It's all about modeling context of the design situation and by doing this we're able to elicit insights that might not be otherwise available. So, yes research can bring value and I don't think it's a band-aid in most of my engagements; the internal staff typically listen to their customers, but they don't have the knowledge to appropriately model context for an interactive project. Most companies I consult with don't have internal design teams. And I would also say that I don't always do research, due to the typical constraints of budget and in that case we are heavily relying on the company to model context. Kevin On Jan 1, 2008, at 4:30 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: I've been reading Allison Fine's wonderful book, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Agehttp://www.amazon.com/Momentum-Igniting-Social-Change-Connected/ dp/0787984442/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1199227694sr=8-1 . In one section, Fine talks about the listening deficit that cripples most organizations, positing that corporations and NPOs alike tend to continually push their own agendas and hope their customers will simply remain quiet and keep giving them money. When they later realize this isn't working, for whatever reason, they hire outsiders to figure out who their customers really are and what they need. Instead of listening to their customers, donors, volunteers, employees, fans, and so on in the first place, they pay *someone else* to do something they could and should have done themselves. After pondering this rant for a moment, I thought about the User Experience profession. Does the user research aspect of your work exist only because companies are incapable of listening to and holding conversations with their own customers in the first place, or does your reseach provide value beyond what internal staff could have learned on their own had they been listening? Is user research simply a band-aid for the listening deficit, or does it bring something more powerful to the table? -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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 Kevin Silver Clearwired Web Services 10899 Montgomery, Suite C Albuquerque, NM 87109 office: 505.217.3505 toll-free: 866.430.2832 fax: 505.217.3506 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] w: www.clearwired.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
I've been reading Allison Fine's wonderful book, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Agehttp://www.amazon.com/Momentum-Igniting-Social-Change-Connected/dp/0787984442/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1199227694sr=8-1 . In one section, Fine talks about the listening deficit that cripples most organizations, positing that corporations and NPOs alike tend to continually push their own agendas and hope their customers will simply remain quiet and keep giving them money. When they later realize this isn't working, for whatever reason, they hire outsiders to figure out who their customers really are and what they need. Instead of listening to their customers, donors, volunteers, employees, fans, and so on in the first place, they pay *someone else* to do something they could and should have done themselves. After pondering this rant for a moment, I thought about the User Experience profession. Does the user research aspect of your work exist only because companies are incapable of listening to and holding conversations with their own customers in the first place, or does your reseach provide value beyond what internal staff could have learned on their own had they been listening? Is user research simply a band-aid for the listening deficit, or does it bring something more powerful to the table? -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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] Is user research a band-aid for the listening deficit?
Robert, if you are an outtie, then I would say, you are the band-aid. If you are an innie where you mandate is to be the ears of the organization to end users and customers (not always the same thing) then no, that is not the case at all. It is a formalization of the listening process, and further implemented methods for turning listening and IMHO more importantly observing into real data for analysis to turn into ideas. AND at that even with all the listening in the world, you can still get it wrong b/c the analysis is so difficult to do, and then converting the analysis into valuable design is another point of translation in the matrix. There are so many parts of the puzzle and to point just at this one thing seems, well a bit myopic to me. But to answer you directly ... If you are a consultant doing UX, you are a band-aid. If you are an innie, you are the ears of your organization. In either case, both roles are valuable and shouldn't be demonized. A band-aid could save your life, ya know? -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24074 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ 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
