So there’s Don Norman, being ornery. According to him, doing user observations first is wrong:

Let’s face it: Once a project is announced, it is too late to study what it should be – that’s what the announcement was about. …

Field studies, user observations, contextual analyses, and all procedures that aim to determine true human needs are still just as important as ever – but they should all be done outside of the product process. This is the information needed to determine what product to build, which projects to fund. Do not insist on gathering this information after the project has begun. Then it is too late; then you are holding everyone back. …

So let’s separate the field and observational studies, the conceptual design work, and the needs analyses from the actual product project. We need to discover what users need before the project starts; for once started, the direction has already been determined.

Interesting. And a bit depressing.

It’s depressing at a philosophical level, because what it means is essentially that the UX profession seems to have climbed over the mountain only to see another mountain. It’s also a bit depressing personally, because in a perfect world, I had dearly hoped that a relatively new (and monster) project at work would be informed by some useful user need studies, but in my heart, I know that Don’s right…that bus is long gone.

Thanks to InfoDesign for the pointer.