Don Norman

Along the same lines, Donald Norman (usability guru, started the usability field almost single-handedly with the book "The Design of Everyday Things") recently said:

"I've come to a disconcerting conclusion: design research is great when it comes to improving existing product categories but essentially useless when it comes to new, innovative breakthroughs."
http://jnd.org/dn.mss/technology_first_needs_last.html

You can't ignore customers completely. Apple discovered this with the Lisa computer in the 1980s, which apparently was amazing for its time, but at $10,000 found no market. Perhaps Lisa was the computer Jobs wanted for himself, but it turned out that few others were willing to shell out that kind of money.

On the other hand, it is clearly pointless to ask consumers how to design attractive or revolutionary hardware or software - you're the expert, you figure it out.

But this doesn't necessarily mean that you ignore target markets altogether - the iPad is innovative, but still clearly focused on a particular set of use cases with a price to make it competitive with netbooks.

Every time I think about Wintel laptops, I'm reminded of this piece:

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly_overrated.html

(summary: people buy things with more knobs and lights because the illusion of control gives them the impression that it is more powerful)

My Toshiba Satellite has five LEDs in a row on the front. Three of them are on continuously (one turns orange, I think, when it sleeps). One represents hard disk activity, though Task Manager's I/O graph is vastly more useful. One of them has never turned on. I have no idea what it's for. It has an icon above it that sort of looks like a piece of paper. I'm sure someone at Toshiba thought it was a good idea to forgo the anti-reflective screen coating in favor of a few more LEDs. "Consumers will love all the extra power afforded by the paper-light!" he said.

Good call, I was also going to mention this until I saw your comment.

It appears there are many UK city sites that are trying to implement these principles. Given that the principles include accessibility guidelines [0] and transparency of intent [1], I'd prefer to see more city sites designed this way. (That is if the sites in question faithfully implement the design principles)

Regarding the site OP linked, even if a little glossy, it's certainly not a disaster of usability. In fact, I tend to believe in the aesthetic-usability effect [2] in the case of not-so-design-savvy users, the added sheen might actually motivate them to use the city portal more often.

[0]https://www.gov.uk/designprinciples#sixth
[1]https://www.gov.uk/designprinciples#tenth
[2]http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/emotion_design_at.html

> Code Complete by Steve McConnell

+1. Also, Rapid Development, by McConnell[0]. I would say that it's even better than Code Complete.

It would be considered "quaint," these days, but Writing Solid Code[1], by Steve Maguire, was a seminal book in my education. I still use many of the techniques he mentioned.

And I cannot say enough about The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman[2]. That book changed my life. I would consider it required reading, for anyone that develops anything that will be used by other humans.

[0] https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/rapid-development-9780735691490

[1] https://writingsolidcode.com

[2] https://jnd.org/the-design-of-everyday-things-revised-and-expanded-edition/

> Design is communication.

I assume it’s unintentional, but the rest of your comment twists the original meaning of the maxim[0]. In my experience, “design is communication” generally means a slightly less obvious thing: how through the medium of your design you communicate with the end user.

Your points about the importance of communication between designers are valid, but by using that maxim you make it sound like all design is done in teams, which isn’t fair—a single person can design a great product (and need none of the collaboration tools), if they do indeed understand their users well.

[0] Here’s a lovely article: https://jnd.org/design_as_communication/

I definitely appreciate the effort you've gone to. Unfortunately user testing without careful evaluation can wind up hindering or hurting a product. If you look at a site like 37signals (hah, had to make sure I got the capitalization correct - http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1088-how-not-to-apply-for-a-job), they do a great job without it, and manage to upset the great Donald Norman while they're at it (http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/why_is_37signals_so_1.html).

I do agree that startups should be doing more. You have done a good job of giving some steps to get started, so kudos.