4 ms·

> I guess it is easier, and more enjoyable, to design and build things that seem useful, I agree with this. We (IT people) are so self-centred that it hurts.

> I guess it is easier, and more enjoyable, to design and build things that seem useful, I agree with this. We (IT people) are so self-centred that it hurts. :) We do "everything" - we "entertain" ourselves with new approaches, frameworks, management ideas - except actually "talking" to and "knowing" our users, their life ands true needs. It's particularly sad, at least for me, to see UX also being "shaped" like this. We can get essay-like posts on building an icon family, yet it's hard to find good content regarding how company X got to know their users and build what they really wanted.

minthd 11y ago
>> yet it's hard to find good content regarding how company X got to know their users and build what they really wanted. Isn't all the work by steve-blank and the lean-startup deals with it?
msutherl 11y ago
Most large corporations including Google, Apple, Intel, etc. have an entire department of designers and social scientists (mainly anthropologists) who do ethnographic studies, user studies, etc. in order to understand their customers, new markets, etc. It's really only the startup world that puts less emphasis on user research, but that's in large part because it's resource intensive to do so and many companies have shown that they were able to succeed without it. As startups grow larger and the market more saturated, they must shift from "scratch your own itch" to "user-centered" in order to grow and stay competitive. Alas, because the startup scene is overwhelmingly centered in the Bay Area and is dominated by white upper-middle-class American men, white-upper-middle-class American male itches get scratched first.
- jsprogrammer 11y ago
  Do you have an example of a white-upper-middle-class American male itch?
  - xur17 11y ago
    Food / grocery delivery startups seem to be intended for upper middle class people only.
  - msutherl 11y ago
    I just Googled "biggest startups". First result: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-startups-that-launched-so-far-in-2015-2015-5?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/best-startups-that-launched-s.... Mostly good examples with a couple of exceptions.
  - zasz 11y ago
    Oh god. Manpacks and The Dollar Shave Club are so hetero-white-male it hurts.

minthd 11y ago

>> yet it's hard to find good content regarding how company X got to know their users and build what they really wanted. Isn't all the work by steve-blank and the lean-startup deals with it?

msutherl 11y ago

Most large corporations including Google, Apple, Intel, etc. have an entire department of designers and social scientists (mainly anthropologists) who do ethnographic studies, user studies, etc. in order to understand their customers, new markets, etc. It's really only the startup world that puts less emphasis on user research, but that's in large part because it's resource intensive to do so and many companies have shown that they were able to succeed without it. As startups grow larger and the market more saturated, they must shift from "scratch your own itch" to "user-centered" in order to grow and stay competitive. Alas, because the startup scene is overwhelmingly centered in the Bay Area and is dominated by white upper-middle-class American men, white-upper-middle-class American male itches get scratched first.

jsprogrammer 11y ago
Do you have an example of a white-upper-middle-class American male itch?
- xur17 11y ago
  Food / grocery delivery startups seem to be intended for upper middle class people only.
- msutherl 11y ago
  I just Googled "biggest startups". First result: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-startups-that-launched-so-far-in-2015-2015-5?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/best-startups-that-launched-s.... Mostly good examples with a couple of exceptions.
- zasz 11y ago
  Oh god. Manpacks and The Dollar Shave Club are so hetero-white-male it hurts.