One of the catch phrases in the fields of Usability and Human Factors is “user-centered design.” Frankly, this has always bothered me a bit. Yes, understanding the user is extremely important and designers who do not consider the user are bound for failure. But the user is not the only stakeholder. “User-centered design” leaves out critical aspects of the project. What are the business goals? What are the technological limitations? Who are the other stakeholders? These are all important questions that “user-centered design” dismisses.
On the surface, “user-centered design” implies that the user is king/queen and whatever s/he wants s/he gets. This is extremely short-sighted. The user does not know what is best for the business. What they do know is how they interact with an interface. This is where gathering the users’ opinions is critical. Sitting users down in front of an interface and watching them perform tasks can tell you if they are able to accomplish the goals of the interface (and in turn, the business).
Is talking to users important? Absolutely. Should users be at the center of the design process? Absolutely not. They are just one piece of the puzzle. I think the spirit of “user-centered design” is to align business goals with how the users interact with the interface, but the term does not relay this. So, may I suggest “goal-centered design” or “stakeholder-centered design?” Don’t let the user trump the overall goals of your project.
Dan Berlin
Sr Research Associate, OTOinsights
http://www.otoinsights.com
Hi Dan,
Great post. I guess we can all thank Donald Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things, as the guy who first put the user first in user-centered design and started the assumption that some designs are more usuable than others and thus inherently “good” which at times a simplistic argument. I mean, the AK-47 assault rifle is easy to use - is that an example of “good” usability as well?
Back when I started IA/UX work many many moons ago, the prevailing attitude among designers and developers was that companies weren’t talking to their customers (i.e. “users”) and thus didn’t know what they were doing. I think the situation has changed considerably since then. Companies are most certainly communicating with customers.
- “stakeholder-centered design?” Which of the stakeholders would be the focus? Many times different stakeholders have very divergent goals, not sure how we would alleviate that conflict.
- users interacting with an interface is not a goal by itself. It’s just the means to get the information they need, complete a task, play a game, and so on. The interface it’s just a tool, when it comes to users’ real goal, I think many of the core UCD design principles still apply.
- Your AK-47 example is an intriguing one: yes, it is very usable, so it’s “good” usability, unfortunately. The end goal of the users, in this case, is the problem. This might be a great example of “goal-centered design”