[IxDA Discuss] Don't listen to your customers.

[Nancy Broden]

I second Todd's observation. There is nothing better than being in  
your customer's environment to help you as a designer puts some  
context around what they are saying.

I'll share an IDEO story that they like to show to clients to help  
them understand why contextual sessions with customers are necessary.  
IDEO was working with a client in the health and beauty industry. As a  
part of the project, the team interviewed "extreme users" - those  
people who said they never, ever used beauty products or services, as  
well as those for whom pampering was a regular habit. The clip that  
IDEO plays is of a forklift operator - a big burly guy who falls into  
the former category. During the session, one of the observers noted  
that there was a home foot spa next to the sofa where the interview  
was taking place. When asked about it, the guy admitted that it wasn't  
just for his fiancee, that he used it as well, explaining that the  
boots he had to wear for work every day did a number on his feet and  
the spa helped relieve his aches and pain. He simply didn't (or didn't  
want to) interpret that to be a 'beauty product' or his daily foot spa  
to be 'pampering'...

On Mar 28, 2008, at 5:45 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:

> There is a difference between doing what your customers say and
> actually finding out/interpreting their needs based on a conversation
> with them and observing their behaviors.

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Nancy Broden
nancy.broden at gmail.com