On Nov 27, 2007, at 8:07 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: > I still don't buy there's anything to this activity-based design > stuff. > > Care to elaborate? You can't just spit out something like that and > run off. ;) What is it that bothers you about it?
I did elaborate when we talked about it here: http://ixda.org/ discuss.php?post=13134 (scroll down to December 26 at 2:44pm). My opinion hasn't changed in 11 months. > In the end, it's all about having information to make informed > design decision, no matter what stupid label you apply to it. > > Agreed. But I'm afraid we need those labels in order to convince > the rest of the world - the part that still doubts the role of > interaction designers - that we know what we're doing and have > significant value. Do you disagree? Yes, I disagree. I don't think we need the labels to convince "the rest of the world." They don't care what we do, as long as we solve one of their five problems. (What five problems? Read Identifying the Business Value of What We Do at http://tinyurl.com/2dt8ne ) We need the labels so we know what the hell we're talking about when we talk amongst ourselves. That said, I *still* don't think there's anything to this activity- based design stuff. I think there is stuff the team knows and there is stuff the team doesn't know. Sometimes, they know who their users are, but don't know much about the activities those users are engaged in. Sometimes they don't know who the users are. I think (based on our research) that the top designers have a toolkit of techniques and tricks for gathering information and insight to fill in the gaps of what they know. Sometimes they'll focus on getting a clearer picture on the subtleties between the users. Sometimes they'll focus on learning more about the activities. But I'm not bought into the notion there are a variety of methodologies that support one versus the other. In fact, I think it's dangerous for UX folks to get too wrapped up in any methodological notions. Techniques and tricks are where it's at. 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
