> 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?
I always take user research findings (quant or qual) with many grains of salt. It's supplementary data to help a designer understand, empathize, interpret, and then make a "good" decision. Designers are informed visionaries, not "short-order cooks" doing simply what the "user asks" b/c often users often don't know what they want, nor how to express exactly what they want. If they did, we wouldn't have jobs :-) Designers must exercise their judgment (comes with years of experience, i know) to use or dismiss that data. Also, what's the goal? 1) breakthrough innovation: no one asked for a Wii, iPod, Prius, Dyson or flickr, but once manifested, then users wanted them. Discovery activities, asking user motives/reasons, social/tech trends, scenarios might help...but again, take salt with what you find! 2) incremental clean-ups: if it's minor tweak for the next point release, listening to those 500 complaints on your forum about the wrong button label would be good :-) But again, if there's a chance to introduce an innovative UI or behavior, then try it, get a pulse on users reaction, and decide for yourself how to proceed. For other resources, google the following folks: Larry Keeley (Chicago ID), Vijay Kumar (Chicago ID), Roger Martin (Rotman), and Craig Vogel (Cincinatti)--all academics but with practical understanding how breakthrough innovation happens in large corps like Motorola, Ford, Whirlpool, etc. But I'd say: Gather some user info, question what's said, reflect on it, create a solution per your design abilities, defend and iterate, etc. and good luck :-) (with lots of salt!!) Uday Gajendar Sr. Interaction Designer Voice Technology Group Cisco | San Jose ------------------------------ [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 408 902 2137 ________________________________________________________________ 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
