The article has addressed pertinent issues related to scientific user research in the design of user experience. Though the author is generally doubtful of scientific research affecting design processes, he has pointed out some advantages such as ‘Research as a Political Tool’ (Part 3) and ‘Interpreting research to influence Design’ (part 2), both of which I agree with.
Like him, I too reject scientific research as foundations of design processes because of the subjective nature of user experience. I believe that scientific research only serves to provide designers with useful empirical data to aids them in their work.
Scientific research merely provides designers with data on users’ attitudes and behavior, which is insufficient to create a user experience. Alternatively, information herald from such research should serve as a basis for designers to further question and understand users better through other research methods.
And as mentioned in the article, results from scientific research should also help designers in gaining management’s trust and support.
Instead of scientific research being the foundation of the design process, let its purpose be an evaluation tool on user’s experience with the product.
I believe that there is no ‘___ (fill in desired number) Step Formula’ in ensuring a good user experience design. In fact, I daresay that there is no fixed formula in deriving a good experience because an experience cannot be quantifiable.
Also, I believe that flexibility is the key because no two design problems are alike. Targeted user demographics may differ when designing the same product and even this difference will have a significant effect on the design process.
