Dear Chris

I am also interested in user-centred design, but I am more interested in or
concerned of seeing Design Research moves beyond this level of discourse as
exemplified in this newsclip. We have plenty, or in my opinions, more than
enough of this level of discussions. Instead of illuminating a sense of
inquiry, it drives us into superstitions. I am afraid.

There is also a different side of seeing where things begin ...

...the current form of user study is not so different in fundamental
perspective or practice from that of the traditional one. The history of
systematic user study in design could be said to have begun after World War I
with ergonomists in Europe and human-factor specialists in North America
starting to be involved in the design of work related artifacts and environment
(Kroemer and Kroemer-Elbert 1994). Since then, information supplied by
ergonomics or human factor analysis has always been a source of information
about people for designers, at least in principle or in goal. In the 1950s, the
idea of understanding people and design products to meet their needs was
emphasized by Henry Dreyfuss (1955) in his own practice. And at Standard
University, John Arnold developed and taught what we now call user centered or
design ethnography in the 1950s (Feland 2004). And in the 1960s the field of
Environment Behavior Studies was established with the belief that information
about how people interact with the physical environment may inform the practice
of environmental or architectural design. Also in the seminal book Design
Methods, first published in 1970, John Chris Jones (1992) included methods of
user study, although he did not name them as such. The belief that knowledge
about people informs design underlined user study in the past as it does now.
Thus it is more apt to think of the ‘new’ form of user study as a relative to
traditional user study, although it is at a more privileged position than that
of the past.

Rosan

Dreyfuss, Henry. 1955. Designing for People. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Feland, John ([log in to unmask]). 29 Mar 2004. "Consumer analysis
research methods." E-mail to PHD-DESIGN DISCUSSION LIST
([log in to unmask]).

Jones, John C. 1989. "Softecnia." Design After Modernism: Beyond the Object,
editor John Thackara. Thames and Hudson.

Kroemer, K and K. Kroemer-Elbert. 1994. Ergonmics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.


Christopher Kueh wrote:

> Dear list,
>
> We have for the past few weeks argued and discussed on the relevance between
> user-centred study and design practice. I just came accross a BBC report on
> this topic:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4393468.stm
>
> I know that it might be too simple for many of the experts in user-centred
> research, but just a thought of us to pause and look at where it all begins.
> Maybe to look at the simple sides of things for a while rather than
> complicating the situation.
>
>