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

[Ted Han]

On 7/27/05, Alexander Johannesen <alexander.johannesen at gmail.com> wrote:
> I actually got a bit angry while reading it. The introduction reads:
> "If it is so critical to understand the particular users of a product,
> then what happens when a product is designed to be used by almost
> everyone in the world?"

Good!  I'm glad i'm not the only one.  I am -extremely- skeptical of
his claims for the simple reason that he doesn't give any really
compelling reasons to abandon HCD.  His complaints about HCD are not
problems that are in principle problems of design, but rather
demonstrations of poor execution.  Human Centered Design (hype and
marketing aside) is -not- exclusively about kowtowing to your users'
demands.  Cognitive engineering, for instance, developed around the
-necessity- to make sure that systems which humans use to accomplish
tasks do not hinder or make it impossible to complete said tasks. 
Furthermore, as any good psychologist knows (and i wish Norman did
too), individual introspection is -not- always the best way to get at
how humans perform tasks.  There is often (but not always) a
significant difference between what people -say- they *want* and what
people *need* to do their job.

As that's the case, i find it quite surreal that Norman is proposing
to abandon HCD, since he really hasn't given any good motivation to!
 
> If all he wanted to do was to focus on activites as a major
> success-factor in human-centred design, then why not just say so? Why
> cause all the ruckus? *grmph*
> 
> Alex, the grump

Ted, the regrump.