About face 3.0/1

"Design, according to industrial designer Victor Papanek, is the conscious and intuitive
effort to impose meaningful order.We propose a somewhat more detailed definition
of human-oriented design activities:


-Understanding users’ desires, needs, motivations, and contexts 
 -Understanding business, technical, and domain opportunities, requirements, and
constraints
 -Using this knowledge as a foundation for plans to create products whose form,
content, and behavior is useful, usable, and desirable, as well as economically
viable and technically feasible

This definition is useful for many design disciplines, although the precise focus on
form, content, and behavior will vary depending on what is being designed. For
example, an informational Web site may require particular attention to content,
whereas the design of a chair is primarily concerned with form. As we discussed in
the Introduction, interactive digital products are uniquely imbued with complex
behavior."



"-Digital products are rude
Digital products often blame users for making mistakes that are not their fault, or

should not be.

-Digital products require people to think like computers
Digital products regularly assume that people are technology literate.

-Digital products exhibit poor behavior

-Digital products require humans to do the heavy lifting"



"The conscious inclusion of design heralded the ascendance of the modern triad of
product development concerns identified by Larry Keeley of the Doblin Group:
capability, viability, and desirability (see Figure 1-3). If any one of these three foundations

is significantly weak in a product, it is unlikely to stand the test of time"

Novell emphasized technology and gave little attention to desirability. This made it vulnerable to competition.Apple has emphasized desirability but has made many business blunders. Nevertheless,it is sustained by the loyalty created by its attention to the user experiences. Microsoft is one of the best run businesses ever, but it has not been able to create highly desirable products. This provides an opening for competition.



"Products designed and built to achieve business goals alone will eventually fail; personal
goals of users need to be addressed.When the user’s personal goals are met by
the design, business goals are far more effectively achieved, for reasons we’ll explore
in more detail in later chapters."

Ignoring the user's personal goals to persue the business goals always lead to a terrible product.


"If you’re still unsure about the difference between goals and activities or tasks, there
is an easy way to tell the difference between them. Since goals are driven by human
motivations, they change very slowly—if at all—over time.Activities and tasks are
much more transient, since they are based almost entirely on whatever technology is at hand. For example, when traveling from St. Louis to San Francisco, a person’s
goals are likely to include traveling quickly, comfortably, and safely. In 1850, a settler
wishing to travel quickly and comfortably would have made the journey in a covered
wagon; in the interest of safety, he would have brought along his trusty rifle. Today,
a businessman traveling from St. Louis to San Francisco makes the journey in a jet
aircraft and, in the interest of safety, he is required to leave his firearms at home. The
goals of the settler and businessman remain unchanged, but their activities and tasks
have changed so completely with the changes in technology that they are, in some
respects, in direct opposition."

Goals are the inner motivation of a user.The activities and tasks are just the process that a user tries to reach the goals.


"Many designers assume that making interfaces easier to learn should always be a
design target. Ease of learning is an important guideline, but in reality, as Brenda
Laurel notes, the design target really depends on the context—who the users are,
what they are doing, and what goals they have.You simply can’t create good design by
following rules disconnected from the goals and needs of the users of your product."

User,behavior,goals