This will be more like a Tweet then a blog, but Jean McGuire who was kind enough to attend class last week and provide some of the sociological side of the discussion sent me this blog post on Civility in the Workplace by her former colleagues in Iowa State's extension offices. It discusses the role of agile software development and the importance of designing applications in partnership with those who will be using the applications.
Although since I'm writing up a blog post anyway, I recommend checking out this hour long interview with Don Norman where he talks about service design, user experience vs. usability, and several other topics. Project 1 and 2 focus primarily on what I refer to as 'classical usability' with a lot of focus on Cooper for design and Tullis for evaluation where it's about creating applications where the user can complete a task because the design follows the cognitive concepts in the layout. The service design project is more about the holistic user experience, taking into account not just the usability but also the emotional and other aspects that allow a user to forgive mishaps so long as there is that extremely salient service moment that leaves the customer happy with the overall experience (Norman uses the example of how at Disney everybody hates the lines--which are everywhere and make up the majority of the experience--but almost everybody would go back).
On a final point with service design, I am going to throw out this controversial idea (feel free to discuss in the comments:
Computers will never replace the best waiters and waitresses but very few waiters and waitresses excel past the mediocre level* and computers will always outperform the mediocre waiters and waitresses.
*I am defining "mediocre level" as taking an order and delivering food. E.g. doing their job at the bare minimum.
This blog is for the HCI 596 course being taught at Iowa State University through it's Human-Computer Interaction program.
In regards to the point "computers will always outperform the mediocre waiters and waitresses", I am on the fence on this one. I am saying that because there is always a learning curve with computers. The average customer even these days probably will have frustrations, so I think we have to account for that. Then also we have to keep in mind that computers can be imperfect. Everytime I get into these conversations I think about the issues I have everyday with my phone freezing up at the most "crucial" time when I am trying to take a photo of my son in action. Or one of my applications crashing. I think both human and computers have their own "issues".
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