¡Needlepoint, no–PowerPoint, si!

Elyse Sanchez, Thursday, May 4, 2006 @ 7:04 pm

I confess to being an amateur quote-collector. While I don't immortalize these succinct and sage sayings on pillows or wall hangings, I find them useful and thought-stimulating appetizers in telling the story of user experience design. They can surprise us with their obvious common sense ("Easy is hard"), delight us with their elegance ("why couldn't I express it like that?") or reaffirm our own realities.

Here are some of my favorites. First, a pair of thoughts from Don Norman:

I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doing

The people who use your product are not usually amateur designers

Treasonous words from a recognized advocate of user-centered design? I don't think so, recalling a former client who punted signoff on several critical design issues by saying "Let's wait until user testing to make a decision." Design should be user-centered, not necessarily user-created. For as Margaret Meade, among others, has observed:

What people say, what people do, and what people say they do are entirely different things.

Or, John Meades:

You need to "listen deeply" - listen past what people say they want to hear what they need.

As designers, we must translate our perceptions of user requirements into efficient design and not merely act as clairvoyants for messages from the world of the users. That is the skill, the value we bring to user research.

To end this post, a quote I introduce into as many presentations as I can, because it's simultaneously a threat and a home truth of the olden days of design:

We will go into your houses and redesign them the same way your web sites are designed. The basement will be the first thing you see, the kitchen will be unreachable except through the bedroom and both bathrooms, the bedroom will be on six different floors, and the dog will be in every room at once. - Ann Feeny, Information Architect's Manifesto

What are your favorite words of wisdom?

user experience design

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