Herkut 14.9.2008

Mental models frequently fall prey to our own assumptions and understanding of a particular field. When creating one, turn off your internal problem-solver and just listen to people. Allow patterns of behavior and motivation to reveal themselves to you. Work from the bottom up, rather than designating several behavior areas and trying to fit people’s actions into them. Make sure you’ve asked questions that dig into a person’s soul. Find out what makes them tick.

Huge numbers of marketing data are not enough for designers to feel inspired and know what to make. They need high resolution, rich data. But most of all, they need to feel engaged.

The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, researchers, engineers, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact. The Designers Accord is made up of over 100,000 members of the creative community, representing 100 countries, and each design discipline.

This article presents some common limitations and downsides of role-playing in usability testing and provides guidelines for avoiding them by grounding usability testing in participants’ real lives. I have always felt that ready-made roles for the users are just pretentious and awkward.