[Sigia-l] looking for insight into the strengths and weaknesses of integrating MSOutlook into portals

[Anders]

--- Joe Lamantia <jlamantia at netnumina.com> wrote:
> However, it's going to be very very
> difficult to get time with the proposed users in
> order to directly investigate their needs and
> perceptions, and so I'm hoping that others may have
> dealt with something similar and can share their
> insights.

Basing your design decisions solely on the experiences
of users in other organizations sounds treacherous
indeed.  Recently when I was asked to develop a UI
concept without having been allowed to speak with a
single user, I asked to be allowed to at least get on
the phone with 2-3 users.  After some haggling, this
was deemed acceptable.  Then, after I showed them my
findings from these interviews--which turned many of
the assumptions that stakeholders had made about their
users on end--a broader user elicitation effort was
suddenly not a problem. I'm not saying this is what
will happen in your case--you are of course dealing
with a different organization and facing different
issues--but the bottom line is **interviewing at least
a few users is a world of difference from interviewing
no users at all.**

-Anders