Loser-Centered Design

If every (design) company is jumping on the user-centered design bandwagon, shouldn't someone suspect that there is something fishy going on? I mean did I miss a fundamental paradigm shift in our society in the sense that everybody has become altruistic and only wants the best for each other? Group hug anyone? It is still business, Jim, and still as we know it. Simply put: with user-centered design there is something to gain. Better products you might say, at least that is the benefit that is fiercely promoted by the user-centered design followers. Wrong! User-centered design is there to cut cost. The costs of having expensive designers explore several possible products on end and only deliver a product that nobody wants. So it seems only logical to ask users in advance to give input and kill the darlings of the designers because the users are not interested in them. In the end users reduce the risk of designing unwanted products. So user-centered design is risk-centered design. And if costs are cut shouldn't we, as users, someone benefit from this, that is, not get better products but CHEAPER products. Not something I noticed recently as a 'user'.

Tagged with: psychology, user centered design,