[IxDA Discuss] Changes to Facebook (Perceived Privacy)

[Mark Schraad]

On Sep 9, 2006, at 1:59 PM, Susan Farrell wrote:

> What I proposed as a better alternative in a case like FB is a lot
> more like beta testing. Take a few volunteer actual users and their
> real accounts (instead of the prototype), and invite the entire user
> base to tour the features in situ and give feedback (instead of
> evaluating with only a small sample of representative users).

I agree. This is the advantage of a small nimble start up. They can  
make a change to (product A)... serve it up online at random  
intervals (variation B) and gauge its success in real time. The  
larger the company, the harder this is to do. Research is absolutely  
necessary, but in the end, it only give you indicators, not answers.  
Laboratory situations or even online simulations will not give  
designers what they want unless the process is tied to true  
situations. I am a lot less conservative with money when I am playing  
Monopoly. I am looking forward to being able to make real time, on  
the fly design changes with real time feedback that helps me to gauge  
success. Alternatively, in marketing queries, predictive markets seem  
to hold real promise for extracting tacit knowledge from invested  
participants. It is going to get quite interesting and very fun in  
the next few years as we develop more accuracy and insight into users.

> Your point about the designers sometimes being right in the end
> (features eventually get accepted) is true enough, but if change is
> managed carefully, it's not always necessary to go through the PR
> disaster stage to get there. Unfortunately human beings seem to be
> change-averse on the whole, which means even good changes can be met
> with strong resistance -- especially when the change seems to be
> mandatory and seems to originate from outside the group. Involving
> users in the design change process can help a lot in reducing that
> resistance.

One of my favorite professors often said, "you do the research  
diligently, you develop a solid strategy, but in the end you trust  
your gut." As designers we can use research to determine a lot of  
things. But we still have to lead. The folks at Oakley are at the  
extreme here... reportedly disavowing any research. They believe that  
the customer does not know what is cool until they (Oakley) show  
them. The absolute hardest determination is how far ahead of the  
customer to be. Too little, we fall flat. Too far ahead and we have  
Newtons.

Thanks for the clarification Susan.

Mark