“The past” is filled with far more examples of products, innovative thinking, and success stories based on activity-centered research, magic, genius design, and just plain luck than UCD can claim even on its best day.

What’s cheap and easy is the idea that we can dissect a chef’s work and call it a recipe. That we can simply analyze genius and come out with a one-size-fits-all plan for success.

—Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Ouch. Definitely a hit to the old UCD ego, but I couldn’t agree more.

Rather, her process was simple enough to resonate with anyone on a Web team. And perhaps more importantly, it would help connect Web teams to other core parts of their organizations who were skeptical of spending even another cent on their web sites.

In the end, using Indi’s process, we were able to convince teams that we weren’t researching all the creativity out of their projects. We were researching the risk out. And no matter how the industry is faring, that’s a story people want to hear.

Taken from Jeffrey Veen’s forward to Indi Young’s new book, Mental Models. I love the cover design.

We have chosen to set this methodology course in the demanding context of a real world study. Students will be asked to master the ethnographic method even as they use it for a practical purpose. Our topic is whether and how the Public Broadcasting System may embrace new media. Specifically, can PBS use the new technologies for production, communication, interaction and networking to change what it is and how it connects with its audiences?

http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2008/01/so-youd-like-to.html

Before I get into G train improvements, though, let’s look at the insights we’ve gained so far about the seven lines for which we have survey data:

• No train has received a rider grade higher than a C, and none lower than a C-. Hmm. OK.
• The L, 4, 5, and 7 trains are overcrowded. Phoenix is hot in the summer.
• The J/Z takes too long to show up. Also, what is a Z train?
• The M and D trains are dirty and also take too long to show up.

Yawn. As my high school calculus teacher was fond of saying, these findings are “intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer.”

The problem isn’t that people aren’t telling the MTA the right things, the problem is that the MTA’s survey is too general to be useful. It asks the easy questions and gets the obvious answers, masking the nuanced problems specific to each line. These specific complaints, I believe, are where the MTA could make some real improvements to the subway system.

For example, after the votes are tabulated we will no doubt learn that the top complaints of G train riders are “reasonable wait times for trains,” “minimal delays during trips,” and possibly that the “sense of security” is low. A train schedule—presumably the MTA records data about the timeliness of their trains—and a crime report would tell an MTA official the same things.

A couple of focus groups would tell them even more: these concerns are heightened on nights and weekends, when the G all but shuts down. The G train is actually very reliable during rush hours. Riders may amplify their concerns as a result of the G train’s reputation for being extremely unsafe and unreliable, a reputation gained in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Specific questions to specific riders about their G train habits would uncover these biases. Instead, we get the following findings: MOAR. FASTAR. SAFAR. Not surprisingly, that’s what everyone who rides any train line in the city wants.

A massive effort to understand the intuitively obvious.

Photo courtesy of randombit on flickr.

Huh, they’re asking about a usability study. Maybe they will weight my opinion because I’m more sensitive than the average user about where Unbox doesn’t work so well!

Sigh.

I actually find this pretty funny. I’d never thought about filtering these audiences out from a broad survey like this. Anyone have any ideas why Amazon would do this?

There is very little on SXSW’s schedule that I wouldn’t want to attend:

• The Real Story Behind Snakes on a Plane
• Turning Projects Into Revenue Generating Businesses
• Under 18: Blogs, Wikis and Online Social Networks for Youth
• Stop Designing Products
• Web 2.0 / 3.0 Arts Entrepreneurship: Make Your Passion Your Profession
• Why We Should Ignore Users

The list goes on and on. I won’t be there, but you can bet I’ll be following online.