Archives for January 2015

“In modern product development, speed to market is constantly increasing” answers Yury. “Competition is fierce. It seems that every market niche is packed with competitors, and product teams must push the tempo of their work to keep up. This necessity makes old assembly-line ways of working obsolete. The problem is that, traditionally, this has been the way most design agencies typically work with their clients.
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Even worse, an agency’s and a product company’s teams work differently and, often, at different locations,” continues Yuri. “Sure, there are lots of meetings, workshops, and discussions happening. But the agency lacks the internal dynamics of a product company, including endless mini-brainstorms, project discussions, and accidental chat during lunch or beer busts. This makes the product company’s idea exchange supersonic fast and builds strong trust and team spirit. A lot of meetings are spontaneous, so it’s impossible to have the agency team participate in every one. The result is that they gradually lose context.

Źródło: The Future of Large UX Design Firms, UXmatters.

It’s time for our industry and discipline to reconsider the word “user.” We speak about “user-centric design”, “user benefit”, “user experience”, “active users”, and even “usernames.” While the intent is to consider people first, the result is a massive abstraction away from real problems people feel on a daily basis. An abstraction away from simply building something you would love to see in the world, and the hope that others desire the same.

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The entire technology industry uses the word “user” to describe its customers. While it might be convenient, “users” is a rather passive and abstract word. No one wants to be thought of as a “user” (or “consumer” for that matter). I certainly don’t. And I wouldn’t consider my mom a “user” either, she’s my mom. The word “user” abstracts the actual individual. This may seem like a small and insignificant detail that doesn’t matter, but the vernacular and words we use here at Square set a very strong and subtle tone for everything we do. So let’s now part ways with our industry and rethink this.

Źródło: Lets reconsider our “users”, Jack Dorsey, CEO Square