Re: UCD and Innovation

on 18/9/03 11:22, Anthony Colfelt at [email protected] wrote:

> It's my experience that neither users nor customers can articulate what it is
> they want, nor can they evaluate it when they see it.


Familiar quote, and still untrue. It really depends on who your users are,
how well they understand their own task domain, their current systems, and
the innovations happening in technology and interfaces. I have worked with
many professional users with competence in the these areas and so have been
provided a fairly specific (and correct) requirements brief. I have also
worked with users of the kind reflected in the above quote.
So I recognise that there are no final truths in this game and am constantly
amazed to see people taking strong positions. There is only one truth I
cannot escape when I approach a new client or problem - anything can happen
!
Fixed approaches stifle creativity, and we need more flexibility. It surely
is not so much a question of 'UCD or not', but rather UCD that admits to its
partnership with creativity and innovation (whether that comes from the
user, designer, or elsewhere). I personally do not think of 'ethnography' or
'lateral thinking' as alternative to UCD. When they work they work because
they comply with UCD principles and so are UCD methods.

Frank Wilson
Interaction Design Ltd, UK

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