[IxDA Discuss] Rationale for *not* using UCD

[Donna Maurer]

So I was thinking about this some more, and Steve is right in that I do 
do user research (actually, full UCD) and I discovered my patterns in 
when I do and don't.

Do:
- when someone pays me (hehe)
- when the project is big, important, high risk or impacts a lot of 
people's daily lives
- when I genuinely don't know about the domain
- when I'm mentoring or using a project as an exemplar

Don't:
- when the overall impact on life is reasonably low
- when I am a user
- when I have some informal ability to learn about users
- when I have an easy connection to users
- when I'm working on something I can change rapidly

My don't example is the IA Summit website, which I've been buried in for 
the last month (and further, the whole conference). I didn't do any 
formal UCD, but I have spent the last 3 conferences doing informal 
research, have a close connection to a large number of users, have set 
up a good underlying structure, and can make changes pretty quickly...

Donna

Doc wrote:
> I think a lot more people use an informal user-centred design approach 
> than the formal UCD methods written about in books. I know Donna does 
> the occasional piece of user research, for example, and I know that to 
> her the usefulness of the end result is paramount. And without being 
> anything close to an expert on the distinctions, an activity-centred 
> approach must in some way be inspired by the end users who will be 
> performing those activities, whether that inspiration is explicit or 
> tacit.
>
> So my question back to Leisa is: what do you mean by UCD methodologies 
> and is there some specific criteria you have in mind for what 
> qualifies an approach to be or not to be UCD?
>
> <http://www.webstandardsgroup.org>


-- 
Donna Maurer
Maadmob Interaction Design
e: donna at maadmob.net
web: http://maadmob.net/maadmob_id/
book: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/