Wed, Apr 11, 2007

Lie #2: User-centered design as user-centered

by Austin Govella

For 90% of designers 90% of the time, design methods should address the system, not specific users. When we focus on user context, we lose the context of the system.

Comments

Pinnochio

As practiced by 90% of designers 90% of the time, user-centered design is a lie.

Instead of focusing on all users of a system and carefully selecting the best places to improve and optimize the experience, user-centered designers create a special class of users who require special treatment. Designers privilege the experience of end-users over the experiences of a system’s other users.

Insisting a special class of users exists when this is not necessarily true creates this special class of users. Advocating for a special class creates an environment where that advocacy becomes another stage-gate in the project’s life-cycle: just another checkpoint to get past.

Rather than centering design around user needs, the needs of special users become a hurdle to be jumped, an obstacle to completing the project.

Secondly, by refusing to focus on the entire system, designers willingly blind themselves to their work’s real impact and value. Designers trapped in a silo of end-users can’t accurately compare the value of their work for end-users against the potential value of design for other parts of the system (whether this is other users, business, or technological concerns).

As connoisseurs of only potatoes, user-centered-designers refuse to comment on the rice. It’s no wonder user-centered designers can’t recommend which would make the better meal.

For 90% of designers 90% of the time, design methods should address the system, not specific users. Users, behaviors, social interaction, etc. are only parts of the larger system.

Talk About "Lie #2: User-centered design as user-centered"

Zephyr said:

Though that might be the case, there's a good reason why many designers (I wouldn't say 90%, but then I didn't conduct this survey) would fall into this trap. There's often no shortage of representatives and stakeholders for the internal user groups, while the designer is pretty much the sole representative for the end-user. So we get conditioned to pay more attention to end-users than to other user groups. next thing you know you're neglecting these groups...

Wed, Apr 11, 2007

Austin said:

Zephyr,

I used to agree with this perspective, but now I've come to believe you should design to optimize the system.

Sometimes that means optimizing the end-user's experience, and others it might mean optimizing the front-end for maintenance, or optimizing queries for overhead instead of for user usefulness.

My take, anyway...

Thu, Apr 12, 2007

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