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I don't understand the "You are Not the User" mantra. In the past I've worked in teams where we were actively using the product we were developing. Dogfooding i

by avian 9y ago

I don't understand the "You are Not the User" mantra. In the past I've worked in teams where we were actively using the product we were developing. Dogfooding is a pretty established practice these days. For most purposes, I was The User - the user finding bugs, performance problems, etc. - but not user interface problems. For the UI I was Not The User. The Users for UI were these hypothetical beings only UI experts could came up with.

ivan_gammel 9y ago
Developers actively using their product always have expert bias and may not represent the target audience of the product. Also, in most cases it's a wrong assumption that you use something exactly in the same ways as others, so decisions based on developer or designer own experience are usually not optimal and may actually harm the users that would purchase the product or service.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Part of the "expert bias" is that you want the tool let you do the job as efficiently as possible, which is also something the users want. It's, however, not what the marketing department wants.
  - ivan_gammel 9y ago
    There are two wrong assumptions you are making here. First of all, "Doing the job as efficiently as possible" is not a user's desire. Users always want concrete things and developer's opinion on what that could be or how that will be achieved by a particular user is very often quite far from reality. Second, it's not a developer's job to create a tool that will help users to solve some problem in the way he thinks it is right. It is not what developer is paid for. His job is to work together with marketing department to deliver a product that is always a compromise between the business and the user, a product, that is just good enough, in a deal, which is good only then, when noone is happy with it, but everyone can accept it.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      > a product, that is just good enough, in a deal, which is good only then, when noone is happy with it, but everyone can accept it. I refuse to accept that is right, even though it is what seems to be happening everywhere. That's probably the root of my opinion. I'm a believer in the concept of making money through providing value to the customer.

by avian 9y ago

ivan_gammel 9y ago

Developers actively using their product always have expert bias and may not represent the target audience of the product. Also, in most cases it's a wrong assumption that you use something exactly in the same ways as others, so decisions based on developer or designer own experience are usually not optimal and may actually harm the users that would purchase the product or service.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
Part of the "expert bias" is that you want the tool let you do the job as efficiently as possible, which is also something the users want. It's, however, not what the marketing department wants.
- ivan_gammel 9y ago
  There are two wrong assumptions you are making here. First of all, "Doing the job as efficiently as possible" is not a user's desire. Users always want concrete things and developer's opinion on what that could be or how that will be achieved by a particular user is very often quite far from reality. Second, it's not a developer's job to create a tool that will help users to solve some problem in the way he thinks it is right. It is not what developer is paid for. His job is to work together with marketing department to deliver a product that is always a compromise between the business and the user, a product, that is just good enough, in a deal, which is good only then, when noone is happy with it, but everyone can accept it.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    > a product, that is just good enough, in a deal, which is good only then, when noone is happy with it, but everyone can accept it. I refuse to accept that is right, even though it is what seems to be happening everywhere. That's probably the root of my opinion. I'm a believer in the concept of making money through providing value to the customer.