[IxDA Discuss] Feature control on user interfaces

[Nasir Barday]

Oliver,

Your e-mail alias has "hci" in it, so I'm assuming you're already
comfortable with the academics, and that you want to know about real-life
industry applications. Here's how I've done it at my company:

-) Put up a quote from Kelly Goto outside my workspace: "Ask users, and they
will guess at what they do. Watch them, and you'll know." I recite this in
meetings when people bring up topics like "cool features this client *has*
to have next quarter."
-) Have product developers and engineers help you conduct contextual
inquiries
-) Run usability tests on the existing product as a benchmark
-) Model users with your team on the whiteboard and come up with insights
about workflow together. The most useful information to get out of this are
personas and their goals.

In short:
-) "Wants" vs. "Needs" can be easy to ferret out once you have your users
modelled, not only for you, but for the whole team.
-) Failing that, usability tests (well-benchmarked with the original design)
show if a feature really is useful or just gums up the works

If you want more info on implementing UCD (with a focus on IxD), I'd highly
recommend About Face 2.0 as a read. I feel like I'm spitting out standard
stuff you already know-- let me know if you're looking for a deeper cut.

- Nasir