4 - Michael Metzler

     Chapter 3 shows us that the user is not always correct. The user can be misleading with what they want due to biases. The designer should listen to the user's ideas for new features and consider why the user wants them. Is this something they actually need or is it something they think they need? After careful consideration, a designer may or may not elect to add such a feature. Chapter 3 is showing a new step in playing the whole game. I like to think of this part as "taking away the tee" from tee ball. The user wants something useful that is so simple he or she could do it in their sleep. However, users can adapt to the technology presented to them. It is ok to give them something more advanced if it accomplished the task at hand, and the user does not have to spend too much time to learn it. The focus of our designs should ultimately satisfy the task or problem needed to be solved, or ACD. Then the designer should test the design to the user and make adjustments at that point.

     Hoekman means by situation-centric approach is to test designs based on user actions. Most users only use or learn about 20% of a designs features or enough to get the task done. They use their own understanding about how the application works. As the designer, we know all their is to know about it, but the user has to learn them so our views can be biased. To test our designs, we must test the users in situation based ways to see how they will use the design and for what. This will give a better idea of how well the design is made if the users can get stuff done effectively. I would have used a test case to test project 2. I would have rounded up some users and ran them though a test case.