Listening to Users - Sometimes Not A Good Idea
Development Process, Usability Design, Usability Testing Add commentsIt’s common wisdom among usability experts to listen to users…but is there a time to not listen to them? I just found a good talk from Paul Buchheit of FriendFeed and Gmail fame @ Startup School. He shares some pretty good concepts on when to listen to users, but more important, when NOT to listen to them. Here’s my 3 favorite takeaways from the talk:
When Not To Listen To Users
1. “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” ~Henry Ford
Sometimes people don’t necessarily foresee the best solution. You need to analyze the core user problem.
2. Decipher user advice limited by narrow life experiences.
Things and contexts for success change. Keep in mind the souce of the advice and filter for context.
3. Listen to the enthusiastic voices
Tune into the few users truly enthusiastic about your product. Those users would have some of the best advice and suggestions.
September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 am
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