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
