UIE: Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs
"The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don't, every little design decision becomes a struggle. While techniques, such as focus groups, usability tests, and surveys, can lead to valuable insights, the most powerful tool in the toolbox is the 'field study'. Field studies get the team immersed in the environment of their users and allow them to observe critical details for which there is no other way of discovering."
Some very powerful points here. How can you know how your customer (the user) behaves and hope to deliver to them the best product unless you get a better understanding of how they interact with it 'in the field'. In the context where it is designed to be used.
Although it is extremely important to get customer feedback, in whatever form , it doesn't substitue from seeing your product being used, abused,broken and applied in ways you would never had dreamed. Go do some field work! I'll be joining you just as soon as I'm let out.
Posted by Paul Goodison at August 18, 2003 09:39 PM | TrackBack