Hi all,
Interesting thread! Too bad I couldn't get to it before now. *sigh*
I've become quite a fan of Kahneman's "Thinking, fast & slow" which details
many experiments highlighting the biases and glitches that afflict most of
us. What I find most interesting is that once one understands those biases,
one can at least mitigate them. That is, that there are rational ways to
account at least a bit for those biases - i.e., we oughtn't give up trying
to understand what's "best" (however that's defined).
With respect to design, I think one of the most important things about
eliciting information from users is that they (probably) don't know what
they want but they (probably) have a deep knowledge of what's wrong with
what they have - the "as is" state, as it were. What users writ large seem
to say they want is based on what they've seen/heard/been-told they want,
or what they see other people using that isn't what they themselves have.
Another thing I've noticed myself - and that is supported by research - is
that the way information is presented will alter what one thinks, even if
the information content itself is the same. There are excellent examples in
Kahneman's book on that too. So, when trying to elicit information from
users, it pays to ask the same thing in different ways, and not just settle
for a straightforward question->answer format. It also pays to have experts
review what was asked and presented to users to elicit the information
because the asker himself/herself can become insensitive to peculiarities
of the elicitation that are biasing the results.
As far as determining what "best" is, there are almost always at least some
metrics that can be specified crisply enough (though not necessarily
quantitatively) that everyone will agree to their relevance.
Of course, all of this is statistical: there will always be outlier
situations that defy whatever guidelines one might use. It pays, therefore,
to remain as flexible as possible and to roll with the punches.
Just 2 cents.
\V/_ /fas
*Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.*
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
ORCID: 0000-0002-3689-5112 <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3689-5112>
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
On 21 February 2017 at 23:41, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-
> dont-change-our-minds
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Terry
>
>
>
> ---
>
> Dr Terence Love
>
> PhD(UWA), BA(Hons) Engin. PGCEd, FDRS, PMACM, MISI
>
> Love Services Pty Ltd
>
> PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
>
> Western Australia 6030
>
> Tel: +61 (0)4 3497 5848
>
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
>
> www.loveservices.com.au <http://www.loveservices.com.au>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
> Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|