Discuss The Fable of the User-Centred Designer

Awesome ebook. I love that it's:

a) Short - I read it in 20 minutes
b) Easy to read - the story is compelling and entertaining
c) Covering really important points that are at the core of user centred design

I don't know why this format works so well for me but I was able to learn so many new things. There were concepts I understood to a certain degree but the story format and the way you presented this stuff helped clarify exactly what was meant. The question / answer format of the main character really helps to present common real-world questions that clients / companies have.

Thanks!

I loved it and stayed up late last night reading the delightful fable. The moral of the story of the user-centered designer - pass it on - is quite evident in the way you do business. It is a rare and exceptional privilege to be the recipient of such expertise and knowledge. I will definitely honor you by passing along the principles (as well as the attitude) to those that come behind me. Thank you so very much!

Thanks so much for taking the essential concepts of user-centred design and brilliantly weaving them into a highly readable story.

With humans being intrinsically wired to respond to stories and storytelling (re-affirmed in Susan Weinschenk's book Neuro Web Design), this was a stroke of genius in terms of effectively communicating these concepts to others.

This was a nice, clear read: you capture well the founding principles of usability. Of course calling someone who can do these things a designer is a bit misleading. The work you describe here represents some of the analytical parts of a design activity, and the inclusion of these pieces can improve the likelihood of meeting human needs. But it's not a comprehensive view of design and may therefore be unappealing to those from a design tradition. Perhaps that's not your audience.

I really enjoyed this fable. Makes me wanna read Lafontaine French fables again. Thanks for sharing. I find this story is of great help for people having to determine the personas of their interactive projects.

I love this quote :

"The young man said, "So companies don’t do the research because people in the organisation simply assume that they know what’s best for customers?'
'That’s been my experience,' agreed the designer. 'And when they do research, it’s often not the kind of research that’s needed to create better designs. The research often focuses on uncovering demographic factors rather than truly understanding people’s goals and motivations.'"

And this one :

"It’s true that design teams will come up with multiple designs for a system. But then the decision on which one to develop tends to be swayed by the HIPPO."

Actually, we have not to forget that down the line, the HIPPO is still the one who often calls the shots. I'm all for user-centered philosophy, and I truly believe in using iterative process and measures that lead to better interactive designs, but what if my boss don't give a damn about all the fuss?

A fourth secret to your Fable could be : "Make sure the Hippo trusts your judgment and does not interfere in the design process". The HIPPO has to be your ally. User-centered design is highly political.

Let me begin by congratulating you for writing the wonderful 'The fable of user-centered designer' and then for making this free to distribute.

It is a simple yet effective fable and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Hope I will be able to see more of it put in practice.

I am a software engineer who has over the last 10 years grown into an experience designer. I love to give users an interface that simplifies what they do. Specially the 'wow!' they utter when they see the same task they have been doing done differently (which I think is mostly useful as well) is what motivates me.

After reading the book, I agreed with all that was written. In my experience I generally have problems coming up with alternate designs of the same problems. Looking at the requirements, I am able to generate the first alternate view of the problem but then I tend to get stuck with that thought and really struggle with presenting more ideas. While I am able to give tweaks within the first view, just another design is where I almost never get.

Any ideas for me?