I like this quote. Reading it makes me feel empowered to figure out what my ideas are, then figure out how to make them known. The picture is from Ed Batista‘s trip to the National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC.
Don Norman in the July/August ’06 issue of Interactions magazine wrote a good article about HCI coming in at the wrong phase of the development process. Where this is definitely true for interactive development, this premise is insightful for any industry with a consumer facing product.
“…once a project is announced, it is too late to study what it should be – that’s what the announcement was about. If you want to do creative study, you have to do it before the launching of the project. You have to be on the team that decides what projects to do in the first place…”
Now, this is the exact intention of User Insight Management – being able to apply a user-centered design approach to the idea phase of the [insert domain] process.
UIM = User-Centered Ideation
Rather then taking the time to become a domain expert, dedicate yourself to the comprehension of the landscape of that domain. Then when faced with future challenges, you may not know every current trend, but understand how to find the experts, then utilize their expertise in your innovation.
