There is an opinion in application development that users of applications don’t know what they want. If users don’t know what they want, who does? We do! We users know what we don’t like by listening to our sense of annoyance.

And it’s kind of a trick question. Of course users know what they want, don’t want. It’s silly to think they don’t. What users don’t know is what they don’t know: functions and features they don’t use or don’t notice. Who is in a position to find that middle ground of innovation blending how it’s used with what is possible to discover ways to improve quality of experience, usability, and most importantly, usefulness?

HCI to the Rescue
That is where human-computer interaction specialists like Usability Experience Designers and Information Architects are needed. They are trained to recognize what users want and to understand the bigger picture of functionality. They do this by listening, watching, and studying what is said and done. It is the process of gathering, studying, sifting, and sorting what users say they want that leads to understanding not just what users want, but what they NEED.

In human-computer interaction studies, we are taught to truly understand what users want is to listen to what they think they want. Only then can we step back, study, and recognize needs beneath the wants.

We are all users
Any person that uses an application is going to react to it differently to it and will form their own opinion about what makes sense. Usability experience designers and information architects are taught to pay attention to what people want, to watch what they do, and most importantly, to think about what makes sense devoid of associated biases.

Of course you’re the best person to ask about what you think of using an application. If you’re a user like me, you’d be happy to tell a developer what they could do different. And I’d listen.