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Listen to people about their complaints and preferences as intellectual equals.
by s-shellfish 8y ago
Listen to people about their complaints and preferences as intellectual equals.
- citrablue 8y agoSure, but not everyone's opinion is equally valid. I've worked with a number of design teams who confuse their opinion (an educated opinion, which I respect) as a fact. Facts beat opinions -- if a short-term optimization will be a long term loser, then prove it. Unfortunately, it's not really possible to prove/disprove an opinion on what a design element will do. Additionally, optimization testing allows you to try out different options. Going with someone's (educated) gut feel is a worse decision than exploring the option space. Ideally, you'd test everything. In the real world, resource constraints apply, so at issue is how to establish an internal discipline where facts trump opinions, and opinions can be tested then either discarded or confirmed.
- s-shellfish 8y agoI mean the users of software. Instead of trying to predict what is the best design, create interfaces that make it easy to aggregate that data, and take that information at face value. When it comes to design, there often aren't facts (one may even suggest facts don't exist when it comes to design). Study the history of art to contest that. Otherwise, listen to users like they are humans, and see whether it matches with the designers advice. Simple.