Re: Heresy! - No, reality, but with risks that may be unwise

One can design interaction however one wants.  Tossing coins is an option, hence fate-centred
design is a possibility.  The question must' interaction design be user-centred must be false.
How could it be true?   What could force it to be user-centred?

There are many possible approaches to design .  There are no
inevitable consequencesof (not) being user-centred.  Good design happens without being user-centred, and bad design is not impossible when being user-centred.

It is not a question of being user-centred, usage-centred, designer-centred or art-centred.
What matters is how we approach design and what guarantees come with different approaches.
Very little can be said with any confidence at a level of abstraction that is as vague as
'centredness'.

HCI is about risk management.  Being user-centred should reduce a range of known risks of
systems failure or unacceptability, but only if the design team focuses on what is unacceptable
and what will really make a system fail.  In this sense, if we want a design focus at all, it should
be success-centred !

Designing without any idea of what constitutes success is the real danger, and this is just as
easy in a supposedly user-centred setting as in any other.  Indeed, any approach to design
that assumes that some element of quality in use must predominate is highly risky.
Success depends on a wide range of outcomes, and usability and user acceptance are only
part of this.

Our job in HCI is not to dominate the design process or to insist on a fixed set of approaches.
Our job is to understand the human risks to success associated with usability and misfit with
the context of use, and to work with project sponsors to get them to identify where success
must include usability, user acceptance and system fit.  The latter can only be achieved reliably
and consistently within a user-centred approach.

So, in answer to the question "Does Interaction Design have to be user-centered?", the answer is
"No, but if it's not, then be certain that this will not result in system-failure".  This is the real
challenge to advocates of non-user centred approaches.  You get to be creative or whatever, but
at what cost?  What matters more, how designers feel or what they achieve?

----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony Colfelt <[email protected]>
Date: Monday, September 15, 2003 6:10 pm
Subject: Re: Heresy!

> I know a fairly well respected person in the industry, who has
> started championing 'Designer Centred Design' which has the
> hackles on the back of my neck standing up.
>
> >
> > Of course it does not. There is lots of interactive art which is
> not in
> > any way based on user research. It still takes interaction
> design to
> > design interactive products. I would even go so far as to argue that
>

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