Users and Percieved Confidence
I found this article in the LA Times a few days back that talks about a recently published paper that looks at internet users and compares their actual skills with their perceived skills. Not surprisingly, men were over confident (not a single one rated themselves as a beginner), while women were under confident (none called themselves an expert). Interestingly, internet use and skill remained the same for both genders over a five year period, as did the perceptions. The researchers worried that the under confident women were limiting themselves and their future based on a false lack of confidence.
This reminds me that in information architecture we have to make sure that we know our audience, sometimes even better than they know themselves. The better part of design is understanding what people need, not what they are asking for. Think iPod, not Creative Zen. The Zen came out first and had all the features that the early adopters were asking for: FM Radio; PC Compatible; longer battery life; bigger hard drive. Then, the iPod came out and gave people what they actually needed: beauty; ease of use; access to online music. When you compare the two on features the Zen wins, hands down. When you compare the two on sales, the iPod blows everything else away. Apple gave people a product they desired and developed an entirely new market, including many peopl who would never have considered anything other than CD’s for all their music needs.
So, the next time you are reviewing requirements, consider what is actually needed, not just what is being required. What is needed should always be your bearing point, your true north. It is a harder to do things this way and there will always be critics (check out the initial opinions of the iPod). However, if you can pull it off you will be much more successful and your customers will be much more satisfied.
technorati tags:information architecture, ipod, zen
