4-Sikander Ansari

Hoekman says, “Understand Users, Then Ignore Them” (chapter 2 title). Design is not always about whether the user is right or wrong because users are not always particularly good designers. In regards to user-centered focus it is critical to understand the context of the design and what the user needs, not what he thinks he needs. Many times users overestimate potential “new features” and how often they would use them – they say they will and never do. Because of this it is not necessary to consistently release new features. Furthermore, it is important to “build only what is absolutely necessary” because users only take advantage of a small fraction of what is available to them through the application. New features only complicate things for the casual user.

Hoekman supports a situation-centric approach to research when creating a design. The goal in this is to get away from designing for a general user base, and instead design based on how and why users use an application – placing the designer in the shoes of the user. This approach could have been applied to Project #2 by understanding the situation of the user instead of just creating a generic test. It would have been beneficial to the design to understand the end goal for the user (were they trying to get into shape, be able to run a faster mile, increase stamina, train for a marathon, etc.). This could have been accomplished with a quick questionnaire or interview. This would have allowed the design to become more comprehensive.