4 - Hayden Mills

I believe that the user is not always correct. In many situations the user could be completely off the mark and wrong about what your design needs or doesn’t need. The important idea to consider from the third chapter of the book is if the tests and feedback you are receiving from different users is critical to the main goal of your end design/product then you should be weary of changing or adding the features recommended by the users. For example, if you are creating a new application in the hopes of making it easier for people to send email, then that should be your main concern with design changes and additions. If the user says that they want you to add or remove something that drifts away from your main goal of the product then you should thank them for the feedback but still be concentrated on what you are trying to accomplish overall. Many of times companies get distracted by creating new features just for the simple fact of creating new features.  Instead they should be concentrating on how they can better enhance their main product and its design.

Hoekman advocates for a larger user centered focus when he warns that in some instances we give to much credit to the individual and the personality of that individual and we fail to realize the situation in which they are coming from overall. This situation-centric approach speaks volumes to the design process and how we should consider user feedback. Different users experience different problems with your design because people may have different reasons for using the product and come from different experience levels and backgrounds. All people are different and that is a good thing. The challenge designers have is to create designs and products in which the end design can help everyone even when they are different and come from different levels of experience. 

Without a doubt I believe shadowing more users would’ve allowed our team to better understand the problems with the elliptical interface and how we could better improve it. We based all our new design features off our one user test and our personal experiences which weren’t all that bad. It would still not hurt to have tested a few more people to get a better understanding of the real problems with the old design.