Re: user-centered design

I would go further to say that user-centered design is "us figuring out how to meet the needs of the user."  I think what Erik was describing, "embracing their ever changing desires," is user-driven design, as opposed to user-centered design.  The difference between the 2 is the difference between being reactive and proactive.  When you base all your design decision on input/feedback from your users, you become reactive and it is very hard to be innovative from that posture.  When you are proactive, you take the time to learn about your users and their hopes, needs, and goals and you design to help your users fulfill those hopes, needs, and goals.



----- Original Message ----
From: Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_JHU.EDU>
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Sent: Thursday, May 3, 2007 10:38:53 AM
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] user-centered design

I'd add that user-centered design has to include _us_ _figuring out_ how
to meet the needs of the user. That is our job, and our profession. When
I say this, I can be confused with saying we are allowed to make people
adjust to our system, or that it's our job to provide "good" systems
whether the users agree they are good or not, they need to adapt! No,
that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying figuring out how to make "our users' tasks increasingly
easier to accomplish" is NOT easy! It's hard! It takes time, and it
takes expertise.  Too many people think user-centered design means
trying to get your users to design your systems for you. Nope. Anyone
who's ever been a consultant knows the "Yeah, that's what I asked you
for, but that's not what I needed!" phenomenon.  It's up to us to figure
out how to give the users something that will work for them, it's not up
to the users to tell us this. It's up to us to ask the users what they
need, what they're doing, what problems they have, what they want to do,
how they think---and then WE have to identify  solutions! We can not
abdicate this responsibility! Not to the vendors, and not to 'the users'
either.

Jonathan

Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
> I am glad to see all of this traffic regarding user-centered design.
>
> In libraries user-centered design is all too often associated with
> giving the patron what they want on a silver platter. This is
> difficult for many of us to accept, especially in academic libraries,
> because we believe it is our responsibility to teach people how to
> fish as opposed to giving them the fish. (How many metaphors can I
> mix here.) At the same time, I believe making our users' tasks
> increasingly easier to accomplish will only make it look like the
> library is increasingly helpful. As libraries are seen as
> increasingly helpful, users will says, "That was nice. It saved my
> time. I liked that. Give them more resources to they can do more of
> that."
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University Libraries of Notre Dame
>

--
Jonathan Rochkind
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu