The User Advocate |
Arie van Baarle; 20+ years experience in design, branding & interaction. Founder of Limage Dangereuse, creative director of Razorfish, co-founder of Syndicat now selfemployed. Developing adaptive brands and helping brands to interact with their stakeholders. Focussing on all aspects of interaction: Human-Brand interaction (brand development, service design and digital strategy), Human-Machine interaction (website and brand-app concepts/design) and Human-Human interaction (social media strategy and concepts). Specialties: Digital strategy, concept development, human centered design, interaction concepts, service design, experience branding, social media- and experience design. |
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Great brands lead users, not the other way around…
A few months back Fast Company’s Co.Design blog published a controversial post that triggered a lot of discussion. In their article provocatively titled User-Led Innovation Can’t Create Breakthroughs; Just Ask Apple and Ikea, Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen wrote:
“[User-centered design] doesn’t work. Here’s the truth: Great brands lead users, not the other way around.”
Skibsted and Hansen cited Apple and IKEA as some of the most innovative brands that don’t follow the user-centric design model. They say that their friends in the Apple design team spoke out against user-centric design because it’s “a waste of time”, and similarly at IKEA because “it doesn’t work.” They argued that brands have to take the lead in innovation with a strong and consistent vision, and outlined several reasons why it’s actually detrimental to listen to your users.
I have to admit, their examples are compelling, but are they correct? How do we reconcile their claims with what we know about the value of design research and user-centered design?
read this great post by Peter Hui
