
Prototyping-and-testing is a very useful pedagogical tool. A student of interaction design needs to learn how human users react to programmed behavior and there is no better hands-on method than writing something interactive and then watching users flail, misinterpret, and curse your work. But just because something is good for training doesn’t mean it’s effective in the real world. Unfortunately, few students today ever learn the lesson that, in the commercial world, the drawback…
…f generative effort, and testing prototypes in front of users seems a lot like being user-centered. Unfortunately, the whole notion of learning about, understanding, and analyzing the user has been reduced to a few platitudes and maybe a poster on the wall. It becomes a designer-centered process instead.