On Aug 27, 2009, at 12:59 PM, Ali Naqvi wrote:
The companies that make MILLIONS without a user centered design principle may be the ONLY one in that specific industry.
I don't know what you mean by a "user centered design principle." If you are talking about some philosophical approach to thinking about users, I can tell you that very few of the companies that are successful at producing great experiences for their users have such a philosophy. Philosophies don't design products. Solid design activities are what designs products.
If you're talking about companies that don't regularly execute solid design activities that many would consider "user centered" activities (such as usability testing, field research, contextual inquiry, and others), then your statement above is incorrect. Some are the only game in town, but most aren't. Most have competitors with solid offerings.
The way they succeed is they have a sense of what good design is and they build to that. And they do it without executing the activities.
Also, there are many companies that execute those activities that produce what their customers believe are crappy designs. So, the execution of user-centered design activities does not guarantee successful products.
It could also be that users simply just "accept" whatever these companies create / offer without complaining.
Rarely. People, in general, have no trouble complaining, even when things are done really well.
For me, a company that offer a product, should follow an ethical code just like a company that pollutes the environment. Making money is ofcourse the main aim of business but should this affect the environment or frustrate the users?
Personally, I think that trying to force our notion of a good experience onto companies as some sort of ethical obligation is an arrogant position. Who is to say we have the right to tell other people how they should design their products for their customers?
That's my thinking, Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: jsp...@uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks Twitter: @jmspool ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
