Tuesday, March 13, 2007

balancing user control

focusing on the users in development means giving them the power of choice and opportunity to affect how things should be. but is absolute freedom always good?

there are often cases where the users are too used to doing their task one way that seeing it be done in another way becomes difficult or almost impossible. in these cases it is up to the developer to have the open mind and see where the improvements can be made, tactfully suggesting them and see the response. however, it is very important to keep in mind the routine the users have developed; sometimes they are the most efficient way of working.

another problem that may arise is when the users are given too much choice. "I can do it whichever way you want, how do you want this to be?" can often lead to counterproductive results as they might be overwhelmed and not really have a clear picture of how to go about in doing things. when saying something along those lines, it is always good to have some sort of suggestion of how things could look like. but that must also be balanced with not making things look too done and final, because then there might sneak in a reluctance in the users to change things.

it is very difficult to keep the balance of keeping the users in charge, while not overwhelming them with choices. it is important to keep in mind that they are experts in their work, not in design and development.

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