[IxDA Discuss] Is user research a band-aid for "the listening deficit"?

[Adrian Howard]

On 7 Jan 2008, at 17:49, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote:
[snip]
> Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set  
> up to
> build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I  
> think.
[snip]

I think it's worse than that in many situations. Developers get  
actively punished when they go listen to folk and go "off track", or  
point out issues that may effect the end-user experience. It's viewed  
as "making more work" rather than "making things better".

Personally I think this is the cause of the evil developer-hates-the- 
user stereotype in almost all cases. Not a lot due to the way that  
developers-are. A lot to do with the environment the developers work in.

One of the many reasons I like more agile development environments  
that emphasise communication across all the normal silos.

Cheers,

Adrian