[Sigia-l] research: when is it enough?

[Fiorito, David]

I agree, but quite often the designer or team might be happy but the VP of
Marketing hates it.  She wants red blinking text and animated gifs of
balloons popping to the sound of the 1812 Overture.  Or maybe she read an
article that said something-or-other would be a better solution.

How do you defend against an entrenched opinion from on high?

Research.  

Find out what users want.  Find out if there are any studies in cognitive
psychology that show that bright red blinking text on a bright blue
background is bad.  You are going to need more than your job title to
convince the CXO that your design is good.

I believe that Steve Krug's idea that good hunches are the key to good
design, but in the corporate world the best hunch means zip when confronted
with unreasonable demands from upper management.  Now - if you can back up
your hunch with some sound findings or solid user testing the that stubborn
CXO might just listen to you - the lowly (and highly replaceable) designer.

Cheers,

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Groot, Boyd de [mailto:boyd.de.groot at satama.com]
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 3:28 PM
To: 'sigia-l at asis.org'
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] research: when is it enough?


this discussion reminds me of my philosophy classes back
at my tech school.

the goal of (empirical) sciences is 'truth'.
the goal of design and engineering 'sciences' is to find an 
optimum solution within a set of constraints (physical, economical, etc.)

so maybe the term 'research' misguides us into trying to find
the 'truth', while (and Ziya illustrated this so nicely :-) at the
end of the day it ends when the *designer* (or *team*) is happy with
the results (i.e. when they fall within the pre-set
criteria/constraints/requirements)


Met vriendelijke groet, With kind regards, Ystävällisin terveisin, 

Boyd de Groot
Concept Designer, Competence Leader UeX
tel: +31 6 2705 88 16
····································································
Satama Interactive, Poeldijkstraat 4, NL-1059 VM Amsterdam
tel. +31 20 663 7769      fax. +31 20 668 1468	 www.satama.com
 


   
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