Last night a room full of Web practitioners, nerds, creatives or business people (and sometimes – all of the above) gathered for a discussion night organised by the UXMTL collective. The group of User Experience professionals rounded up a great panel to talk about the perception of UX from the technology, investment, managerial and creative standpoints.
The night was full of insight and fascinating discussions, and I went home fired up by the bits of wisdom shared by panelists and audience, in particular this one remark by Praized CTO Sylvain Carle. Speaking about how he and his company would factor in users, Sylvain said that the most important thing he often had to remind him of, was: “I am not my core/target user”.
For us builders of interaction and experience, this is one of the hardest pitfalls to avoid. Very often, one will hear the story of how a great product has been built first and foremost for its own creators, and just happened to meet the needs of a lot more people! This may often be true, especially at the beginning of a project, it tends to lead us to hubris and delusion.
When my product has been in development for several months or years, is my target user an expert who knows its nooks and crannies by heart, who long ago worked around its flaws? If at that point I think I am the core user, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised when I fail to get new users excited, and only manage to keep around a small core of veterans.
The trick, as one matures with their project, is to realise we drift further and further from our target user base, humbly listen to them and their needs, and find a way to build something that they, and ourselves, will utterly love.