[Sigia-l] D. Norman: "HCD harmful? A Clarification"

[Listera]

Stew Dean:

> Let's say company A makes printers and requests that a section is set up
> called 'my printer'...

I change my printer supplies at most once a year. The printer software
"conveniently" alerts me to low-toner situation. And every single Print
dialog box on OS X has a Supplies... button which "knows" your printer and
automatically takes you to the relevant page at Apple's site with all kinds
of supplies your specific printer may need for a one-click shopping
experience. That obviously is another way of solving the problem.

Now, Epson/Apple may have arrived at this solution after creating a persona
of an "infrequent shopper" like me. I don't know.

What I find goofy is the insistence by some companies in creating personas
as part of a set of "deliverables." I may consider it as internal, informal
work product in furthering my understanding of the user, but not an external
"deliverable" especially to developers who have no business designing things
or even worrying too much about the intricacies of usage patterns, etc.

So, paradoxically, personas might be good for developers *in the absence of
anything else* but not terribly significant for designers who have to weigh
a considerably broader range of factors.

---- 
Ziya

Best Practices,
For when you've run out of your own ideas and context.