User Designs

Let's face it, users of software are just that ... users !

They have no human software interaction design skills, they are certainly not familiar with software design tools nor the limitations of any particular language and despite your best efforts, they never will be.

Most user's ideas of design patterns are what you buy at the fabric store to knit sweaters and the gang of four refers to the people responsible for the grafitti on downtown buildings and sidewalks. I don't mean to denegrate users, but lets face it, they are not software developers or designers.

Let's stop wasting valuable company time and resources engaging people who are clearly not qualified to make the decisions that we are asking of them.

Find a subject matter expert, sit at their feet and learn the business and the process. Take what you have learned and find a way to make the process better, then use what you know to create efficient user screens with minimal wasted effort that mimics the improved process and leave the poor users alone until you have something useful.

Remember - fix the process, then fix the software. -