Small Wins for the User

Last night I chatted at length with a friend who has been designing the UI for collaboration software. She related the clever ways she has been able to talk directly with the users via the product's open source blog, since the product managers (and business group as a whole) don't subscribe to a user-centered approach. As the sole User Experience representative in the company, she has many challenges as she fights for the needs of the user. For example, the developers insist that "the software should be able to do this," without any real reason behind it. Or the product managers will claim that a new piece of functionality needs to be added, because "the client wants it." To which my friend will often reply, "Who is the client? Are they the user?" After asking this latter question enough times over the past months, it seems as though her efforts to champion the needs of the user are starting to sink in. No doubt her conversations with users will be key when she defends her design decisions in the future. You need to start with small wins and build on those. I can't help but think of the quote by Don Norman: "Don't speculate. Don't argue. Observe."

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[sokohl.com » Guerilla Et]

[...] My friend Lyndsay posted a nice little case study of a firend doing some user research on the sly. Sad that people have to do this, but it is nice that UXers are sometimes stepping out of their comfort zones to take this on. I first heard the term “guerilla ethnography” from Jess McMullin of nForm. He’s got a nice blog post talking about riding the bus to observe users. One of the things i’ve been pushing lately is that UX folks have to start being more creative about finding users to observe, interview, overhear, and watch. [...]