Re: Heresy!

Anthony Colfelt wrote:
>Surely if we are always making design choices based on what users can 
>and cannot do, how do we introduce new (and preferrably learnable) 
>mental models into our user's psychy? Does making something usable and 
>understandable first and foremost, trounce any inspiration that may 
>yield 'weird' or shall we say 'innovative' ways of defining a system 
>model?

Hello Anthony,

I do not agree. I do not feel a lack of innovation in my work as an
interaction designer. This feeling comes from, I think, three different
aspects:

1. How I ask for validation. If you *ask* it may be hard for you to push
through even the most brilliant design if it feels even the slightest
bit uncomfortable to the user you are interviewing. However, if you
perform a standard usability test and *observe* users carrying out
pre-defined tasks while using the new design, you (or preferably someone
else since you did the design) may very well discover that the new
design is brilliant. Or that it sucks, but at least then you know.

2. How I get inspiration and ideas which enable me to (at least once in
a while) come up whith innovative solutions. For me innovation comes
from the work i do for other clients, with different design teams,
working with different hardware, in different bussinesses and usage
situations. It also comes from what I read, what I watch on the web, and
the software I try. I really love those moments when in a project I
recognize that I've seen this kind of problem before, I look back at my
old solutions, find something that worked OK, work on it, and make it
work even better in the new context. 

3. How I get to influence the final outcome. The earlier in the project
I get hired, and the better I succeed in tying the design solutions to
the bussiness and usage goals of the client, the more freedom I get to
influence the final outcome. It is really wonderful when in a meeting
you get the chance to talk people through the business goals of the
system, what that means in terms of user goals, and what the system will
have to do to fulfill those goals. That kind of reasoning has often
saved me from having to design features and functions which I know won't
be used simply because they do not take the user, nor the client, closer
to his or her goal. It has also given me the freedom to try somewhat
unorthodox and, "innovative", solutions.

Another thing that I've come to realize over the years is that, even
though the users are poor interaction designers, the can give you really
great idéas. The trick is to get them involved and get the ideas without
having them force you to "place that button there". 

Cheers,

/Johan

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