Written to help you design through ‘the worst of times’ this article actually provides some great advice for anyone doing design work to stick to ALL the time!
Product complaints and returns are often caused by poor design, but companies frequently dismiss them as “nuisance calls,” – most of the flaws found their origin in the first phase of the design process — product definition.
Now this is a bandwagon I’ll jump on – designing with the ‘whole’ user in mind (not just goals, tasks etc). “take a hike, task analysis! Good bye, user goals! These concepts are insufficient for the new kinds of systems we are designing.”
“People who understand the social interactions between people and the technologies they use to mediate the interactions need to understand the focus is on the social interactions between people and the relationship that technology plays. It is in a sense