[Sigia-l] Research then prototype OR prototype then gather userfeedback

[Sarah A. Rice]

I'll agree with Cindy and will add something about research --

I usually lean toward research up front, usually because people who 
come to me have questions that lend themselves to those sorts of 
answers. Also, depending on the character of the company (are they a 
leader or a follower in their market segment?), different approaches 
might be best. Research up front is really great for contentious 
issues. It's easier to side-step minefields simply by saying "the 
research revealed that users care most about..."

An important thing about research up front is that 1. you'll need to 
decide the best type of research for your given situation. Which 
leads to 2. research is great when you have a clear question to ask. 
Such as, "how does one currently manage a digital music collection?" 
or "How does one make purchase decisions when looking for a used 
car?" You get the idea.

Sarah
At 02:59 PM 12/19/2005, Cindy Blue wrote:
>In my experience, it depends (yeah, yeah, it all depends) on how much you
>already know about the users, how much time you have, what type of
>information you are trying to gather, and what you mean by prototype.
>
>I have worked on products for which I really know the audience, and feel
>that it is better to have something visual for them to react to, in order to
>solicit more specific responses.  In other cases, I've known next to nothing
>about the users and how the product might fit into their workflow and
>environment.  In this case, putting anything in front of them might
>completely miss the mark and waste time.
>
>A prototype can take many different forms, some more time consuming than
>others.  An uninformed prototype can backfire if users focus on an element
>of the visual that isn't insightful, or if something from the prototype that
>wasn't well thought out survives iterations by flying under the radar (no
>overwhelming positive or negative feedback).
>
>Cindy
>
>
>
>Cindy Blue
>Senior Information Architect
>NavigationArts, LLC
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf
>Of Trenouth, John
>Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 4:34 PM
>To: sigia-l at asis.org
>Subject: [Sigia-l] Research then prototype OR prototype then gather
>userfeedback
>
>I'm interested in hearing people's experiences with two different
>approaches to design (whether it's a product, service, information, what
>have you).
>
>Is it better to start a project by:
>
>1.  Studying users' workflows, environments, experienced, etc., and then
>develop prototypes based on this knowledge
>
>OR
>
>2. Just putting something together based on what the organization
>already knows, and then bring it to users in order to gather their
>feedback on what you have.
>
>The first option is a proactive approach that progresses through
>knowledge and insight, while the second is a reactive approach that
>progresses through constant course corrections.
>
>Obviously over the course of any project there is a little of both,
>however to start of a project it's an either or choice.  What are your
>experiences with this choice?
>
>
>-- john trenouth
>
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Information Architect  .  408 315 8961  .  rice at seneb.com  .  www.seneb.com