The Fable of the User-Centred Designer

Almost one year ago, two Saint Mary’s Press project teams set out to develop two distinct products.

One team was tasked with developing an all new product. The second team was tasked with revising a product already being used.  The resulting products would ultimately serve different markets and therefore different customers.

But before each team began to develop, they were asked to read a short story. The story, written by Dr. David Travis, is called the “Fable of the User-Centred Designer”.

Reading this story and the subsequent conversations of the project teams,  signaled the beginning of a shift in how we viewed and approached product development. 

I bring up the story here today because it serves as great background and a helpful illustration of the approach of user-centered design. But also, because  the story serves as a good reminder for all who develop and innovate, that what we create, we do so not apart from but in partnership with, those who use what we develop.

I post the link to the story here with thanks to Dr. David Travis for his encouragement to “pass it on” and for his willingness to share his wisdom.

 Download pdf version 


 

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GOING DEEPER: Read more about red routes here at http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/redroutes.html

Words Matter

One cold, snowy day in February--in Texas (seriously, it wasn’t funny), Niall, Sara and I were sitting around a table (during our Certified User Experience class) trying to come up with a script for one of our usability tests. We were going back and forth around which words to use and finally I just asked our professor Brian, "Are we obsessing over the wrong thing here......wrestling over which particular words to use?" (I guess I was worried that maybe we were over thinking the exercise.)


His response surprised me. He said, "You have to do that....words matter."


WOW! In that one phrase, Brian affirmed a profound truth I have always known, but sometimes shrink back from expressing. Words are powerful because they have the capacity to convey a reality and to point us toward a particular truth or meaning. The better the word choice, the more clear the meaning or understanding of the reality could be.

This is why during site visits and customer interviews, when we ask our customers questions and they say a little, we sometimes ask them to "say more". Sometimes, their use of additional words or different words helps us to better understand --or DISCOVER with greater clarity-- the truth of their reality.

This is why as we worked on the Online Learning Environment (featured in the last post), we watched and listened (through usability testing) to how our customers were interpreting the environment they were in front of and how they were understanding the meaning of the words.
As we observed them, we tried to DISCOVER what words would prompt them to go to a certain place or asked them to tell us what words they were expecting to see to indicate they had arrived at the right location.

So we had to determine, do we use the word "assessment" or do we use the word "test". Do we write the words "vocab builder" on the button, or do we put the words "play game" on the button. In this case, what started out as “assessments” became “tests”. What started out as a button with the words “vocab builder” became a button (shown below) that said “play game” (and vocab builder served a more descriptive purpose).

Does it mean that we spend hours and days on choosing just the perfect word? No; to reiterate what we talked about at one of our last company meetings, we need to hold in tension the triple constraints of time, cost and quality. But what it does mean is that we pay attention during the discovery phase and the evaluation phase & we do our best to choose the words or images or icons etc.  that best represent the truth of the reality--and then try it. We'll learn soon enough if we are understood, or if we understand the customers’ reality--and we keep moving forward. The moral of the story is---Words matter.


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**To ponder this further

(either individually or with your team)

 consider the question:

How does the above reality transfer into my own work or the work of our team?

"What are you trying to do?"

Ben Nagel....many of you remember working with him.  I've heard his name mentioned so many times since he moved on.

For those of you who didn't know him, Ben was great to work with. He had an incredibly positive and infectious spirit and had a genuine graciousness in his work with others that I deeply appreciated. Not only was he analytical but he had a great passion for people, for understanding them and for supporting them.

I came to appreciate Ben in new ways in 2005 when we first began working with one of my favorite acronyms- RFM. RFM is a strategy we learned at that time for segmenting our customers based, basically, on their behavior--how Recently they ordered, how Frequently they ordered, and how much (or the Monetary value of what) they were spending. It was a way to direct our marketing efforts more effectively.

As we were learning this strategy and weeding our way through new ways (well, new for me) of viewing this type of customer behavior through pivot tables, I began to hear Ben asking me the same question. I would go to him asking for some data to be pulled a certain way and he would often come back with, "OK, Heather, what are you trying to do?"

After I got over being perplexed or frustrated that he would often answer my question with a question (because I have NEVER done that), I realized that he wasn't just interested in what I was saying I needed, but he was interested in discovering what I was trying to do, what the actual task was I was trying to carry out.

His question always led to uncovering the reality of what my need was, whether or not I had articulated that need clearly up front.

And so it is with understanding our customers.  Unless we realize what our customers are trying to achieve, what tasks they are trying to carry out, our understanding of them will always be limited to one angle of their experience, what they've shared.

Since we've begun learning about user-centered design, we’re realizing how much more we can do for the customer when we understand what our customers are trying to do (either through interview or observation) and what they require in order to carry out their tasks.  This principle and this process is taking the phrase understanding people to a whole new level. It is taking customer service and more importantly, customer CARE to a whole new level.

And it begins with that small little question from Ben that seemed to always come back to me (like the puck on an air hockey rink that seems to come right back after you send it over to the other side).

The official "What are you trying to do, Heather" Air Hockey Table


The truth and power of this question continues to grow for me and actually has become the starting point for understanding the needs of others that I work with now. I've realized that one element at the heart of product usability and ultimately guides a user-centered design process is making it possible to answer the age-old question: "What are you (or your customers) trying to do?"


Thank you Ben Nagel-