Human-Centered Design Considered Harmfun

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Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful

Don Norman

Another lovely writing from the mind of Don Norman. This time he talks of the horrors of human-centered design (HCD.) He compares HCD with ACD (activity-centered design.) The basic principle is to not design for people, but design for activities. The more you focus on the needs of a person, the more to alienate all the people you're not designing for. The one person will benefit at the expense of many others. 

Many companies focus on their users though. Listening to users is good in moderation, but will be your downfall if it is driving the product design. By trying to appeal to everyone that has a request, the product becomes bloated and hard to use. Ignoring your users totally is not always the best case either. There are few examples where the total ignorance of the users was actually a benefit. Most companies need to learn how to listen in moderation and design their products around activities, not specific users.

Another classic Don Norman writing. At this point, a short paper is about all I can handle at this point. He actually makes sense this time though. By focusing on the users, you please no one. By not listing to your users, you mostly please no one, unless your product seems to have a cult-like following that will blindly agree with you anyway. Companies should spend more time designing around what their product actually does and only take the users into consideration when it comes to testing to see if they can easily accomplish a task or if it helps them with an activity. I actually agree with Mr. Norman on this point.