On Jun 10, 2008, at 2:01 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr wrote:
The difference is also a mindset difference. Instead of focusing on
goals and such, I focus just on the details of the activity—how it's
performed, how it breaks down into tasks and actions and operations,
etc. The distinction may be subtle, but I find it changes the way I
approach the research pretty substantially.
I think, most of the time, focusing on the activity will get you where
you need to go. These are localized goals, in a way.
I still think there are times when goals will different amongst
individuals using the same functionality, and that will influence the
details that make up the activity. In this case, understanding the
variety of goals will be important to the design process.
Did you know that Joshua Porter also appears to subscribe to the tao
of ACD? I find that particularly interesting, since he's one of your
former disciples.
Yes, well, some birds fly farther from the nest than others. We will
always love and cherish him, no matter his misgivings. :)
Where the question, at least for me, comes down is how do you know
when to trust your gut? Do you have a gut sense as to when your gut
sense is good enough? (Would that be meta-gut?)
The only time this fails for me is when I'm hungry. My meta-gut gets
confused. :)
Eh—it's all very subjective. There's no way to be sure either way
that you do or don't need user research to get a handle on an
activity. Sometimes, you do it and find out you didn't need to.
Sometimes, the opposite. You have to trust your instincts.
Yes, but do you have good instincts on when to trust your instincts?
Or is this a "Good Judgments come from Experience and Experience comes
from Bad Judgments" thing?
Jared
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