Why doing user observations first is wrong
Don Norman strikes out at having to do research after a project has started. He suggests that just getting to design is a much better alternative.
"So let’s separate the field and observational studies, the conceptual design work, and the needs analyses from the actual product project. We need to discover what users need before the project starts, for once started, the direction has already been determined. We need to embrace rapid, iterative methods. We need to fit the new procedures used by the programming teams, we need to become team players. What’s especially nice about these new methods is that they have made room for us: they explicitly acknowledge the importance of HCI design. Everyone wants us on the team, but only if we won’t slow down the work. More power to them."
"I have long maintained that any company proud of its usability testing is a company in trouble, just as a company proud of its Beta testing is in trouble. UI and Beta testing are meant simply to find bugs, not to redesign."
Add tag Permalink | Saturday, August 26, 2006
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