Barbara, that was a great post! (Especially the first and penultimate
paragraphs.)
It seems to me that every term used to describe work done in our field
ascends, and then eventually descends, the Gartner hype curve. This
process ends with gurus and guru wannabes railing against that term.
In the
It's all UCD to me. So why the backlash? It feels like a backlash against
love songs, sandwiches or
democracy.
The frequent arguments (which I'm frequently part of):
1) Many people (and it sounds like you're part of this group) view
User-Centered Design a sort of an all-encompassing,
On Sun, 5 Oct 2008 19:35:34 -0700, Christina wrote:
Lately a lot of senior folks seem to be railing on user-centered design.
Just to chip in with my British 2p.
I don't care what it's called really. We're in business, we have a
website that needs to achieve some things. There are a number of
Jared wrote:
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
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
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
So why the backlash?
Because there's more to design than just the user.
It feels like a backlash against love songs, sandwiches or democracy.
There are horrible love songs, revolting sandwiches and atrocities committed
in the name of democracy.
--
Kontra
http://counternotions.com
