I think the problem is that UCD means whatever people want it to mean.
And that's often, "You're not doing things the way I think they should
be done, so you're not doing UCD."
Personally, my argument is that we've never been able to define it
with any rigor and, therefore, it quickly becomes useless when we try
to make sure we're all on the same page.
It's not so much *hate* for me as a desire to find a vocabulary that
means the same thing to everyone.
Jared
On Oct 5, 2008, at 10:35 PM, Christina Wodtke wrote:
Lately a lot of senior folks seem to be railing on user-centered
design.
Now, I thought UCD was the idea of putting the users in the center
of the
design choices. To do that, you can do it with a bunch of
methodologies, or
visit the users in their native habitat then keep them in mind
later, or
invite them to pick up a pencil and draw you some interfaces
somewhere along
the way. And none of these seem like a particularly bad practice
when done
in context of what you are trying to accomplish. With search,
everyone is
your user and you do search log analysis and a-b testing, when you
design an
internal ap you talk to your users, design for them and htey get to
sign
off. Consumer internet for multiple user types can often benefit from
research, user segmentation and various sorts of testing. Sometimes
personas
are usful, sometimes task analysis... sometimes self-gratification
is the
right call when you and the user are the same. It's all UCD to me.
So why
the backlash? It feels like a backlash against love songs,
sandwiches or
democracy.
Or perhaps I'm merely semanticly sloppy, and the backlash is against
the 32
step persona to particpatory prototype system(TM)?
On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 9:08 AM, Jared Spool <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
We've started sharing some of it in our presentations (such as in
my IA
Summit keynote here: http://is.gd/3ynf).
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