[Sigia-l] Human-Centered Design 99% bad

[Listera]

The individual is a moving target. Design for the individual of today, and
the design will be wrong tomorrow. Indeed, the more successful the product,
the more that it will no longer be appropriate. This is because as
individuals gain proficiency in usage, they need different interfaces than
were required when they were beginners. In addition, the successful product
often leads to unanticipated new uses which are very apt not to be well
supported by the original design.

But there are more serious concerns: first, the focus upon humans detracts
from support for the activities themselves; second, too much attention to
the needs of the users can lead to a lack of cohesion and added complexity
in the design. Consider the dynamic nature of applications, where any task
requires a sequence of operations, and activities can be comprised of
multiple, overlapping tasks. Here is where the difference in focus becomes
evident, and where the weakness of the focus on the users shows up.

One basic philosophy of HCD is to listen to users, to take their complaints
and critiques seriously. Yes, listening to customers is always wise, but
acceding to their requests can lead to overly complex designs. Several major
software companies, proud of their human-centered philosophy, suffer from
this problem. 

Paradoxically, the best way to satisfy users is sometimes to ignore them.

Show me an instance of a major technology that was developed according to
principles of Human-Centered Design, or rapid prototype and test, or user
modeling, or the technology adapting to the user.

Many of us wish for great design. Great design, I contend, comes from
breaking the rules, by ignoring the generally accepted practices, by pushing
forward with a clear concept of the end result, no matter what. This
ego-centric, vision-directed design results in both great successes and
great failures. If you want great rather than good, this is what you must
do.

Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful
Don Norman
<http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/human-centered_desig.html>

Ziya
Nullius in Verba