tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8619715.post5139082301296915374..comments2023-05-22T01:38:25.022-07:00Comments on Riander Blog: Go ahead — ask people what they wantRichard I Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669293190263591598noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8619715.post-22069792102052412212016-09-22T07:13:34.844-07:002016-09-22T07:13:34.844-07:00Personally my experience is more like...be very ca...Personally my experience is more like...be very careful who you ask and have a conversation to manage expectations, especially if you are designing an application for a customer.<br /><br />The higher a person is in an organisation the more likely they are to want maximum control and have very little understand beyond their own experience<br /><br />"Designing" websites and apps has become a DIY pastime and every user considers themselves an expert. Gathering good user requirements from a customer can often rely on their powers of observation!SP Userhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08640818650667453614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8619715.post-48837488817350359452016-05-23T04:32:54.917-07:002016-05-23T04:32:54.917-07:00By the way, I asked Don Norman to react to my post...By the way, I asked Don Norman to react to my post. Here is how he responded via email:<br /><br />“You are correct. the statement “don’t ask people what they want” is dramatic, but overstated. It should be, do ask people what they want, but don’t take their word for it. If you have an established product, their wants can lead you to important new insights. If you have a very new product, their wants reflect their experience today and cannot be relied upon. Here is where you need observation to understand the tasks they perform, where you, the expert observer, can discover needs they never realized — that is, until you point them out.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8619715.post-47235769108422083632016-05-23T04:31:33.144-07:002016-05-23T04:31:33.144-07:00On Medium, James Landay wrote:
I think the mantra...On Medium, James Landay wrote:<br /><br />I think the mantra is not about not asking users what they want, but is instead about being careful in how you interpret the answer to that question and how the answer should impact the design work that you follow with. So I believe the mantra is mainly aimed at novices who may make the mistake of blindly designing what users say they want.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8619715.post-74699500503033169362016-05-23T04:30:16.080-07:002016-05-23T04:30:16.080-07:00On Medium, Maggie Rudzinski wrote:
You’re definit...On Medium, Maggie Rudzinski wrote:<br /><br />You’re definitely picking up on to one of the bigger dilemmas of our field! This is something I see a lot of designers struggle with.<br /><br />I want to unpack the Ford quote as a good example of how to approach the issue. On the one hand, Ford is right — people are limited to their own experiences, and they don’t bring much variety, creativity, or curiosity to the choices they make. They won’t often go out looking for cars when they think of travel in horse-and-cart terms. That said, feedback like “I want a faster horse” is far from useless. People might not know what they want in terms of objects or solutions, but they do know why they want it. They know they want to go faster, get good quality at a price they can afford, they know their limits, needs, and opinions. Designers know there’s a lot to be gained from understanding the experiences of other people.<br /><br />In this way, saying “don’t ask people what they want” is not a complete rejection for soliciting the opinions of your users, but we must acknowledge that most people have a limited scope of awareness — the last thing we want is to mirror that scope through interview questions that go the wrong direction, or by drawing limited, hard to apply conclusions from interacting with users. If they knew what their options were and how to access them, they wouldn’t need a designer, right?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com