User centered design: innovation or optimization
Tip #11: We can’t know what users think and want unless questioning them regularly.
I have recently read that Moore’s law was dead in 2022 (that law saying that the number of transistors doubles every two years in chips, which allows to imagine a relationship with the powerfulness of computers) — Wikipedia: Moore’s law.
The guy in his post (here) said that now a new law applies, the one of inversion of powerfulness of software correlated to the one of powerfulness of computers, because AS MORE AS COMPUTERS ARE POWERFUL, AS MORE AS SOFTWARE ARE SLOW BECAUSE THE EDITORS REGULARLY ADD NEW FUNCTIONALITIES WITHOUT ALSO SPENDING ENERGY TO OPTIMIZE THE EXISTING ONES.
Apart from technical optimizations (speed, stability, availability, bug fixing…), what about the provided usages and functionalities, the provided content relevance or freshness (if relevant), the ergonomics (user-friendlyness, user-centeredness, intuitiveness of utilization, utilizabilityness), the quality of support, the speed of correction integration, the accessibility integration (to constitutive disabled and also cultural, social, linguistic, professional…), and so on?
These last years were all about pretending, talking, writing, offering, and finally integrating some AI into our posts, cloud services, and apps. We are really at the top of Gartner’s hype cycle. Wikipedia: Gartner’s hype cycle.
Even though we know that the bubble will burst, teams are working to be “in the place” with some AI while others have done it or are about to release it. It’s just a race to do things like others do. Previously, we did the same with cloud computing, connectedness (Bluetooth, iOT), big data, blockchain… Wikipedia: List of Emerging Technologies.
Teams all over the world work to integrate AI, pretending they bring along a better user experience. But AI must be provided with something relevant. Many people I have read are abused by the “I” of intelligence, thinking it’s like the one of humans, working like magic.
If our app is not well-fit to public needs, to their way of processing, utilizing, to their cultural approach in the field, the country… we can add all we want to this app; we will just add a dressing to the sick body. That will not solve the deep problem, even though we will attract people with our in-the-hype functionalities.
And when the attraction of the “innovation” in our app deflates… users go on their way, complain to the user support, and at last go elsewhere.
So rather than “evaluate” or “try to figure out” what users need and want… we must interview them, audit the support requests… and start to optimize our applications then, why not, integrate new technologies if it helps to befit.
Luc-Olivier Lafeuille
linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucolivier/
web: https://asitech.fr/home-en
All the tips on the Medium publication “Design Tips” or in French “Conseils de Conception”.
Drawing of Julie Lafeuille
linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-lafeuille/
