Terry Winograd speaks to Credo
We recently had the pleasure of hosting Terry Winograd at the Credo offices. Terry is professor of computer science at Stanford University, where he directs the Interactivity Laboratory and the teaching and research program in Human-Computer Interaction Design. He has been on our corporate advisory board for a number of years and has always been helpful in terms of sharing his perspectives on best practices in user-centered design.
During our discussion, Terry discussed a number of important topics:
• Necessity of balancing feasibility, viability and usability when it comes to product development.
• Interviewing and observing as a means to uncovering creative new ideas that break the mold of how design problems were previously solved, e.g. pull-up diapers and soda packaged in fridge packs. This process involves starting from the core user pain points and abstracting from previous solutions.
• Expanding ideas through brainstorming. Often we too quickly begin pruning and weeding ideas. We need to be wild in our thinking initially to push the boundaries of what is possible. This brought out the distinction between divergent and convergent thinking.
• Necessity of develop safe environments where radical ideation is actively encouraged and not cut off prematurely.
• Importance of building “low fidelity” prototypes early in the design process to show users in order to gauge reaction and hone product direction.
• The challenges of balancing skilled usability versus learnability. Different user groups have varied needs when it comes to software design. Terry described how in game software design, users need to be able to get satisfaction quickly – in less than five minutes – and then, the game needs to get more complex as you go along.
We are grateful for the time Terry spent with us and appreciate the reminders about some of the core principles of user-centered design.
